Nightmare
by TheBonesOfYesterday
Summary: Celine is woken in the night to the sound of her daughter crying. Things take a turn for the worst. (This is a Markiplier ego fic. You'll be seeing most of them about in this one) Please drop a review, and enjoy yourself
1. Panic

Celine woke to the sound of her daughter's cries. Instead of getting up immediately she curled into herself, groaning softly. Evelyn had woken her up every night this week, and it was really starting to wear on the young mother. She couldn't be too upset at her child though. The babe was only a few months old, with health issues. 'Maybe I can have William look after her this once', she thought twisting into the warmth of the sheets.

"Will, can you check on Evelyn?", her words muffled by the pillow she had firmly smashed into her face. She lay there for a few more seconds, expecting for the bed to shift as The Colonel got up, but there was no movement. The crying was getting louder.

She spoke louder this time, moving her face out of the pillow, "William, please. Just for tonight." Still no acknowledgment from her partner.

Celine twisted to face William's side of the bed, eyes still scrunched shut, she slapped her hand down, "Wake up." Her hand hit only the other side of the bed. The cold, empty other side of the bed. Finally she groggily opened her eyes, to see space beside her, void of The Colonel. The crying got louder.

She had no choice now, she had to be the one to look after their daughter. Before she stood though she spared on last glare at the empty space beside her, "Unbelievable."

Standing on sleep heavy legs, she stretched becoming immediately aware of the monstrous crick in her neck. Lord, she was going to be feeling that for at least another week. Where was Willam anyway? She remembered him having slipped into bed beside her, normally him leaving the bed would have woken her up. The crying got louder.

"Evelyn, don't worry! Mama's on her way." She called out, as she shuffled into the dark towards the general direction of her daughters screams, and promptly stubbed her toe.

She let out a string of curse words as she bent over massaging her damaged foot. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she was struck with a singular thought, there hadn't been a table there the last she had checked. She gritted her teeth, letting go of her still aching foot, and surveyed the room. She recognized nothing, not a single feature in the room. The crying got louder.

Panic seized her for a moment, before she remembered wherever she was, her daughter needed her. "Evelyn! Mama's coming!" Celine scrambled through the strange room, turning over every possible hiding spot, looking in every drawer, and every closest. She couldn't figure out which directions the screams were coming from, they were echoing, and over lapping one another, and her heart beat was pounding in her skull.

"William! William, please help me." He must be trying to pull a prank on her. He must have moved in new furniture in the night, somehow. He must be hiding with her daughter right now, thinking he was so funny. "William whatever the hell you are playing at it isn't funny! It isn't fucking funny! Just please bring me my baby, and I'll forgive you." The crying wouldn't stop.

Suddenly there was pounding at the door, "Dark? Are you alright in there?" It sounded like Mark. Did Mark have Evelyn? Was he trying to get back at her, did he think this was the way to do it? Torment her and her baby in the middle of the night?

Reinvigorated with new purpose, she stood and marched towards the door, not minding if Mark saw her destroyed. Not minding if he saw her face coated in tears, her hair in disarray, and panicked. Maybe if he got the satisfaction he'd finally leave her and her family alone. The crying just wouldn't stop.

Celine swung the door open, and was face to face with Mark… except not. He was dressed as a doctor, and was looking at her with shock and concern, something she didn't think Mark would feel for her ever again. His mouth worked silently for a few moments as they stared at each other, "Holy shit Dark. What the hell happened to you?" The doctor finally managed.

Numbly Celine peered around the not-Mark, and saw behind him were many more men. All of them looked just like Mark, all of them, the only difference between any of them was the levels of how ridiculous they looked. She spotted one in particular, with a mustache, and mischief in his eyes. William, but no, he wasn't William. He hadn't been for a long time she remembered. The crying still wouldn't stop.

She wasn't Celine, not anymore. He was Darkipiler, and that baby was long dead.

Slowly he looked back to Dr. Iplier's concerned face. He could see now that his little fit had woken them all up, and all of them were now standing outside his door. All of them. "Thank you Doctor, but I am perfectly fine. Goodnight." Dark heard himself say, as he closed the door ignoring the sounds of protest from the other egos. He locked the door.

The crying would never stop.


	2. Theory Night

"I just don't get it." Dr. Iplier muttered as he leaned across the kitchen isle, "Has anyone seen him like that before?"

After being locked out of Dark's room, the egos tried to persuade the demon to reopen the door for hour or so before giving up. Now they were all, with the exception of the Jim twins, King, and Yan who had all been sent to bed, congregated in the kitchen.

"Anyone? Anyone have any clue?" The doctor's voice rose an octave as he looked around at the others. All of them were carefully keeping their eyes lowered, some instead becoming far too interested in their drinks. With a growl, the Doctor slapped his hands on tables surface, "Christ! I thought we were supposed to be a family. How in God's name do none of us have a clue?"

Ed Edgar rubbed his hands over his eyes, "Doc, give us some slack. That man has more secrets than a dog has fleas." He moved his hands down his face before he locked his arms firmly over his chest, "Besides, you have no more a clue than us, so don't go be getting high and mighty."

A few egos nodded at that, but most looked just too frazzled to really have much to say.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He just didn't know what to do. He was a doctor, more than that he was an ego that was a doctor, a being literally created to want to help people. Right now though, he had no clue how to. "But not even you Host? You know everything. And you, Warfstache, you and him have been around for about the same amount of time. You have to have some clue."

The Host, who had been entirely silent until this point, clinched his hand around his glass, "The Host tells Dr. Iplier that there are some things he does not look into, and in other cases, things The Host avoids entirely." He moved his drink to his lips and took a sip, "The Host informs the doctor that Darkiplier is a man of power, who has many layers. The Host learned long ago not to look where he was not wanted."

So that meant The Host had tried to take a peek at Dark's back story, and had been shut down in a major way by the demon.

Everyone now shifted their attention to Wilford, who unlike the rest of them, who had huddled together, seated himself away from the group. He sat in the window stile, staring out into the night, seeming almost oblivious to the conversation going on around him.

"Wilford. We are awaiting your explanation." Google's eyes were focused intently upon the man, "You are acting uncharacteristically silent. This implies you have more information than you have previously let on. It would be in your best interest to impart this knowledge."

Wilford let out a chuckle, lolling his head towards the other egos, and locked eyes with Google, "Try to sweet talk it out of me, why don't you?"

"So, you admit that you do know something."

With a sigh, the pink ego stood and brushed his cloths clean of non-existent dirt, "No Googs. I don't." He shifted his gaze to the doctor now, and Dr. Iplier was struck with just how tired the normally inexhaustible man looked, "Doctor, you know how mixed up I am upstairs. Some days I wake up and don't know my own name."

Wilford closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead before giving it a few resounding smacks, "I know I should know, I know it's important. I know it is. I know it is." He opened eyes again and scanned the other egos faces. "But I can't. I can't remember, I just can't."

Almost everyone in the room seemed to slump a little father into their seats. Bim smiled wanly, trying to reassure the older ego, "It's alright Wil. We all know you're trying."

Wilford nodded quickly, and turned as if to leave. Before he could get very far though Google asked a question that stopped him in his tracks.

"One more inquiry. Do you know anything of Evelyn?"

Wilford seemed almost frozen for a moment, like someone had paralyzed him. Stiffly he turned back to face Google with an intensity that had been missing before, and he tone was filled with something that almost sounded like pride, "She's perfect. She's the most perfect thing in the world." He blinked a few times and seemed to come to a shuddering halt. Wilford grit his teeth, his face scrunched up tightly, as he lay a few more blows to his temple with the palm of his hand.

Wilford's words came out almost franticly, "That's all I've got, that's all I have of her. I just can't think."

Dr. Iplier let out a sigh through his nose. So, much for that. "Thank you, Wilford. You've done marvelously."

The oldest ego smiled briefly, "Thanks Doctor." He straightened himself, and glanced at a clock eyes widening, "My, My! Its almost three thirty, if I want to get any rest I ought to be going now." His eyes reglazed into their usual madness. "I have a lot of interviews in the morning gentlemen. Might even have snagged one with the Easter Bunny."

Silver Shepheard, who was laying his head on the table, grumbled, "Very nice Wil, we're sure it'll turn out amazing for you. You do always know best." Shepheard over his years as a superhero had learned exactly how to placate the criminally insane, or so he said. Dr. Iplier had a sinking suspicion he just had a soft spot for the pink mad man.

As expected Warfstache preened at the complement, "Ahhh, Shep, you always know just what to say to a guy." He grinned madly at all of them before skipping down the hall, and disappearing.

"Was it wise to let him leave? Even if he is having difficulties remembering he does hold our answers."

Dr. Iplier looked over at Google, "You know as well as I do we wouldn't have gotten anything out of him. His semi-lucid moment was over."

Google stared at him for a few moments, before giving a brief nod, "You are correct. I simply wish he had been able to give us answers."

"He did give us answers."

Everyone's head swung to stare at Ed Edgar who watched them as he picked at his teeth. He looked at each of them in turn, before letting out a deep sigh, "Ah, come on folks. I can't be the only one that saw it." When he received only blank looks, he let out a laugh, "Boy, it sure does feel nice to be the smartest one in the room for once. If you know what I mean."

Google narrowed his eyes, "Then by all means Edgar enlighten us."

Ed instead of fallowing Googles command, seemed to try and sook up a few more moments, of having figured out something before the others, "Why don't you figure it out? Ya'll are so much smarter than me, I'm sure you will figure it out soon enough." He placed his hands behind his head, gloating to himself over this achievement.

"The Host reminds Ed Edgar that this is not a game that he has won. The Host further reminds Ed Edgar that whatever he has learned is potentially important to maintaining Darkiplier's mental health."

Ed's grin melted of his face, "Shit. You're right Host. Sorry about that. I got caught up in the moment and forgot the big picture." After a moment, Ed leaned forward and spoke clearly, making sure every ego in the room would hear him, "When Googs asked him about that Evelyn girl, we were clued in on part of who she was. The only time a man talks that way about a girl is when he's talking about his own flesh and blood. Whoever the Evelyn girl was, I know for sure she was Wilford's daughter."

Shocked silence rang throughout the room, and with Shepherd's cry of, "What?!" The room broke down into complete madness. Accusations were being thrown left and right, voices laying over each other till they reached such a tremendous volume Dr. Iplier was nearly certain that the human world could hear them.

He had had enough of it all most immediately. The Doctor slammed his hands down on the table, "Quite!" in an instant the room had fallen silent again, as the doctor voice reverberated around the room. Dr. Iplier waited for each ego to turn their full attention to him before he spoke, "Thank you. Now Ed, please explain further. As you can see we are all quite confused."

Ed nodded, "Well as most of you know, I'm in the business of children," several egos shifted uncomfortably at that, "And by default that means I'm in the business of parents. I hear how they talk about each other nearly every day of my life. On top of that. . . I'm a father. Even if my son and I think pretty poorly of each other now days, I'm still his father. And as a father, I know how another Father sounds when he talks about his child."

Silence fell across the room again, Google this time, sounding almost hesitant broke the silence, "Wilford Warfstache is well known for his sexual promiscuity. It is likely . . . that one of these encounters could have resulted in a child."

Bim wrung his hands slightly, wetting his lips, "Okay let's say that's true. Let's say Wil does have a daughter, why did Dark wake up at one thirty in the morning screaming her name? That doesn't make since. Right? It doesn't, right?"

"Maybe Dark had a thing with the kid." Silver suggested, even though he said the words as if they tasted funny, "Maybe he and Evelyn had an affair . . . Wilford didn't like it . . . and she got killed somehow."

Ed considered this for a moment, "That would explain the tension between the two of them. I know I'd never be relaxed around a man getting it off with my baby girl. Especially if he got her killed."

Google pursed his lips into a thin line with his brows furred. Dr. Iplier could practically see the gears turning in his head, "With our knowledge of Darkiplier this does not seem likely." Bim nodded immediately, looking relieved someone shared his view.

"I agree with Google. I cannot picture Dark ever getting involved in something like that." Bim bit his lip, shooting a nervous look down the hall that lead to the bedrooms, "Also, all we really heard through the door was the name Evelyn, and that's not much to go off of. I just think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Besides did you see Dark's face? He- he was crying, and he looked so lost." Bim shuffled in his seat and he ran a hand through his hair, "I don't think a love affair would make him look like that. I just don't."

Ed threw his hands in the air, "Well do you have any other ideas?", when no one spoke up Ed continued, "Then shut your mouth. At least we've made some progress in figuring this out. What do you say tomorrow we poke around the bush, and see what we get? Maybe if we give Dark the hint we know his dirty laundry, he'll tell us something more concrete."

And with that final comment, Dr. Iplier already knew tomorrow would be a horrible day.


	3. Preventing Casualties

The next morning it was difficult to wake up for all of the egos, none had sleep well after their late-night talk. Each of them had their own concerns, and issues with the theory presented last night, but each one of them had a unified cause which pushed them out of bed, not only on time but early. This cause was to provide damage control for whatever stupid thing Ed Edgar tried to say to Dark. If they were lucky they might be able to prevent any casualties.

So now all of the egos, at the crack of dawn, sat around the breakfast table waiting for Dark to appear.

Dr. Iplier observed the tired faces around the table, none of them seemed to have gotten sleep. With the exception of Google of course, who had been placed on breakfast duty this morning. The doctor still wondered about the wisdom of this choice. After all the android had never tasted food himself, but he supposed Ed, who was propped against the counter to the side of Google, could stop any disaster before it went too far. He already was giving the bot little nudges in the right direction.

Pushing that thought aside, he turned his attention to Bim, "You've made sure the Jims, King, and Yan are out of the house?" All of the egos had agreed last night that removing them from the line of fire was their priority.

Bim nodded, "Wil took them with him to work, but don't worry he's going to drop them off with the Septics. Bing's been there with Chase for the past week so he can watch them for the day." Bim's eyes were closed, and he used his arm to prop his head up. The man looked as if in any second he would tip over asleep.

Shepherd nudged Bim gently slightly, "Drink your coffee. You'll need to be on your toes today." With a groan Bim did as requested, and picked up his mug to sip gingerly at it.

Time passed in drowsy silence, to only sound was the sizzling bacon and eggs that Google was, hopefully, not burning, and the soft mutters of The Host. After a while the group fell into an almost meditative trance, so it was understandable that most of them nearly jumped out of their skin when The Host set down his mug with a Crack.

"The Host asks each of his companions to remember that no matter how tired they are, Darkiplier is far more exhausted. The Host specifically wishes to convince Ed Edgar to not try and force answers or confirmations out of Darkiplier. As his companions know Darkiplier is not one to anger."

Ed glared at The Host from the Kitchen, pushing himself of the counter, ignoring the annoyed look Google shot him. His eye brows were turned downwards as he spoke, "I know it might be a surprise for you Host, but I don't have a death wish. If I had my druthers I would be doing anything but poking Dark with a stick."

"The Host is glad, he simply wanted to remind Ed Edgar."

The Cowboy was practically snarling now, and started to stalk across the kitchen tiles.

"Ed calm down." Dr. Iplier said as he saw a Shepherd shifting himself to be better ready to stop a fight if one started.

It was clear that Ed wouldn't be listing to them though, "Well you reminded me, but you're barking up the wrong tree-''

"And why would The Host be doing that?"

The egos all jumped at the deep voice, and turned quickly to see Dark standing in the entry way looking far to composed. The dark ego was in a pressed suite, his hair neatly combed to the side, with his eyes narrowed as he watched them.

"It is nothing of importance," Darks aura crackled a bit at the sound of Google. The bot stood stock still with his eyes focused a bit to intently upon the demon, his lips turned up in a mechanical smile, "Take your seat. I will be serving breakfast momentarily." As he turned to do just that he spoke to the still bristling cowboy, "Ed, it would be advisable for you to be seated as well."

While Ed stalked over to the table and took his place by Shepherd who scooted over to make space for him, Dark watched the android for a moment longer, Dr. Iplier could practically see the demon form a decision behind his dark eyes, before smiling politely, "Of course Google."

Dark moved from the entre way, and took a seat by The Host, his aura seeming to wrap around him like a shield. Dark might look perfectly composed, but Dr. Iplier knew he was on edge and that proved it.

A much tenser silence fell across the room than before, as Google set a plate of bacon, ham, and eggs in front of each ego, along with an empty glass, and silver ware. The android then placed a platter of biscuits with butter and jams in the center of the table, along with along with a pitcher of orange juice. Google then took a seat watching the others almost expectantly.

Shepherd reached forward and snagged a biscuit, "This looks really nice Googs." A hum of affirmation came from Bim who had already began to dig in to his meal grinned at Google, "It doesn't just look good, it also tastes amazing. You've really out done yourself." The tension seemed to be forgotten for a moment as they watched the android try and fail to look anything less than pleased with himself.

Google took a few seconds to respond, clearly trying to tamper down the warmness that would have been in his voice, "Thank you. I followed the recipe and Ed's instructions exactly." Dr. Iplier always tried to keep moments like this in mind when he dealt with the Android, it made not snapping at him easier.

Ed Edger grinned at the droid as he began to pass the juice around the table, "Don't be modest about it, I just gave you a few tips. You did all the leg work."

After this the egos chattered with one another as all the biscuits were passed around, Bim was right Google had out done himself.

Dark had even seemed to have relaxed slightly himself, as he indulged on a slice of bacon. Evidently though, the demon decided he had to make a point before they could continue, "I know some of you may want answers as to what happened last night." He paused for a moment and fixed them all in his gaze, "But you don't need to know. All it was, was a relapse. As such I would appreciate not being asked, that would. . . Irritate me." Dark brought his glass to his lips then, taking a sip of the juice. Unfortunately for him that was the exact time Ed made this stellar comment.

"You just don't want to have to talk about screwing Wil's daughter."

Dark choked on his drink, spraying some of the juice on Shepherd. The demon's aura as cracking beyond belief, practically creating a light show. With Dark still chocking, and juice dripping from his nose Bim began to awkwardly pat Darks back.

If Dr. Iplier wasn't aware of what a serious conversation the were about to begin he might have tried to snap a picture of it, "Bim stop that! When some is choking on liquids that'll only make it worse. Just let him breath."

Bim leaned away from Dark looking decidedly more unsure, now that he had nothing to do. Without Bim's attentions though Dark quickly managed to regain enough air to sputter out, "Wha-'', coughing fit, "What did you say?!" His eyes were practically the size of dinner plates.

Ed looked rather unapologetic, as he crossed his arms over his chest, "You heard me loud and clear. You screwed Wilford's girl. Evelyn's her name, right? The only thing I don't know is what killed her. But I'm betting my money on you."

"The Host would like to remind Ed Edgar-''

"Shut the fuck up Host." Ed said, seeming determined to do the exact thing he said he wouldn't do.

Dark had righted himself at this point, but there was something in his eyes now that had shivers running up the other egos spines. Pure rage.

"You disgusting man. How dare you ever speak of her," Darks seemed to be losing complete control of his aura. Not good, not good at all. Dr. Iplier and most of the egos other that Ed, who clearly was an idiot, decided this would be a good time to seek shelter. After living with Dark for some years they had learned that under the right circumstance his aura could do the same amount of damage to a room and its inhabitants as a tornado.

Dr. Iplier found a spot of relative safety behind, the counter and did a quick scan of the room to make sure everyone had found a spot. They had been correct to seek shelter, the aura made winds had started to pick up, violently tossing things about.

For a moment, a pang of fear ran through the doctor's chest when he couldn't spot The Host, only to be quickly rreleased when he realized the reason he couldn't see him was Bim had completely incased the man with his body, serving as The Host's living shield. Hopefully though that wouldn't be necessary as Bim had placed them behind the refrigerator.

Now in safety, the doctor began to listen to Dark again and turned so he could see a bit of the what was happening.

Dark was bearing down on that idiot Ed Edgar, the aura around him completely crimson, and the blue seemed to almost be bouncing of the walls frantically. Dr. Iplier could see that Ed was in bad shape, he was on the ground, writhing. Dark had defiantly broken him somehow, and badly by the looks of it.

"– Only a baby! She was just an infant, and Will killed her just the same as he killed everyone else. Oh sure, he didn't lay a hand on her, but he let those diseased men into our home. He let them in and it killed her! It sucked her life away. And I would have fought so many things to save her, but I couldn't fight Goddamn influenza!"

Dark's voice was growing more and more distorted, and the wind was picking up more violently, Dr. Iplier couldn't help but wince at the sound of something hitting Bim, causing him to let out a cry. Things were getting out of hand, this is why The Host had tried to make Ed stand down. They all knew how badly things could go if you pissed the Demon off, and what did the idiot do? Purposefully piss the demon off.

"Dark, you're going to kill Ed if you don't fucking stop!" Shepherd screamed from his spot under the table looking as frantic as the Doctor felt.

Google, who had placed himself in the hall joined in on shepherd's attempts at reasoning with the old ego, "Silver Shepherd is correct. If you continue much longer there is a likely hood that Mr. Edgar will die. While this does not concern me, think of the doctor. You are only making his job harder."

For a moment Dr. Iplier thought that Dark would continue, but slowly the winds died down leaving only the wreckage of Dark's melt down.

The Doctor was immediately up and headed to Ed. He crashed down beside him to make a quick inventory of all the obvious damage done to the man. A concussion that was for sure, broken wrist, nose, and quite possibly a fractured rib or two, "My honest diagnosis Ed is you're dying, but I'll see what I can do to fix that." A wave of relief hit him when he felt Ed chuckle at his words. The idiot would live.

After he had reassured himself that Ed wasn't immediately dying, he remembered what had caused this in the first place. He spun, ready to snap at Dark, but the demon was already gone.

Shepherd grunted, as he rubbed at his head, wonderful another concussion, "Too late. He left when you were checking him over."

"I have been told one must look on the brightside. There is a clear one here," Google voiced, still at his spot in the hall, in a clear attempt humor, "Bing is still absent."

Dr. Iplier could feel his blood pressure rising.


	4. Doctor's office

Dr. Iplier was thankful his small home office was stocked, because after the breakfast incident he'd needed most of the supplies he had.

He had been correct when diagnosing Ed. Edgar, the ego did have a fractured wrist, concussion, broken nose, as well as an unexpected hair line fracture in his left humerus, but thankfully the ribs seemed to only be brussied.

As Dr. Iplier began the tedious process to set Ed's wrist, who was seated on the doctor's desk, he had to fight the urge to finish what Dark started, "Of all the idiotic thing you could do, Ed, you really picked the crown jewel. Are you happy now?"

Ed clinched his teeth, "Damn it doc, could you be a little gentler with me?"

The Doctor made sure to squeeze a little tighter, taking a tiny bit of satisfaction at the little groan the cowboy let out, "So now you care if something hurts, hmm? Do you care that your little stunt landed Shepherd with a major concussion, and Bim with thirty-one stitches right down his back? Not to mention yourself. If you had been anyone, anyone, other than a Iplier Dark would have killed you." He was finished setting the bone, and went to grab the casting supplies, "Stay still."

The injured ego winced slightly at the Doctor's tone, "I'm sorry, I lost my head. I should have thought long and hard before I opened my mouth."

He plopped all of the materials down to the left of Ed, took his seat, and got to work. "What were you trying to do, Ed? Were you trying to make him lose it?", Dr. Iplier asked quietly, he suddenly felt too tired to keep up his anger.

"I was."

Dr. Iplier's head shot up, "What?!" his hand involuntarily flexed around Ed's wrist, which caused the man to yelp in pain. The doctor scrambled to make sure he hadn't offset the bone again, a string of curses left his mouth until he finally confirmed that the wrist was still lined up. The ego took a moment to calm himself before he re-asked the question, "What do you mean you meant to?"

The cowboy took a deep breath in through his nose, "I knew if I wound him up, he'd snap. Doc, you know just as well as I do that when Darks on a tear he can't keep a secret. I was a sure-fire way of getting some answers." He winced slightly when he shifted, "I just didn't think he'd go that crazy."

Ed had exploited a weakness in Dark, he had manipulated the demon. Dr. Iplier would have been impressed if he hadn't been so horrified. Not being able to keep a secret was putting it to lightly. When Dark lost control, it was as if someone was removing all the contents of the demon's mind and put them on display. The worst part was, it was impossible for Dark to regulate when he was in an episode.

All the Iplier egos knew about the condition Dark had, as they had taken to calling it. Early on in their existence they had agreed not to use it against him, both because of how dangerous it was, and out of respect. With this in mind Dr. Iplier couldn't help but spit out, "And how did that work out for you?"

Ed bristled slightly as he heard the disgust that dripped off the doctor's tone, "Pretty well actually. I found out a lot more than we would have known if I hadn't."

"Christ, Ed. I want to help him as much as anyone, but we might do more damage than good if we force our way in like that. We've worked years to make our group into a family, but it will only take a few instances like this to destroy it."

Edgar avoided the doctor's eyes, and gruffly changed the subject, "The Host, and Google didn't get hurt, did they?" Dr. Iplier watched him for a moment, before he got back to work.

"No, the both of them and I came out unscathed. Google was in the hall, I got lucky, and Host had his very own meat shield."

A chuckle left Ed, "I didn't see much of what was going on, but I'm putting my bets on that meat shield being Bim." He tilted his head back a bit, and watched the ceiling fan whirl slowly, "You think that boy is ever going to learn Host don't want anything like that with him?"

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes as the doctor worked.

"Well, go on and tell me what you figured out."

Ed looked down at the Doctor, a bit surprised at the sudden command, "I thought you're against what I did?"

"I am. But you already did the damage, might as well use what we can out of it." The doctor didn't make eye contact with Ed instead continuing to work diligently on the cast.

"Well, I was wrong about Evelyn being Dark's sweetheart, that's for sure." Ed started after a few seconds, then scowled momentarily, "If I had known she was a baby I wouldn't have said Dark was having his way with the kid. Also, did you know Wilford's was a colonel? While you yellow bellied cowards were hiding, I was privy to all of his rant. And frankly I got mixed signals."

The Doctor looked up at that, his hands dropped to his lap as they came to the end of their work, "Mixed signals?"

Ed hummed in conformation, "For one thing he kept shifting around in how he was talking. One second he was talking about some woman named Celine, next he was talking like the lady was him."

Leaning back Dr. Iplier's face scrunched in confusion, "Are you sure?"

"He went between calling the kid Wil and Celine's to calling it his."

The doctor blinked, that was strange but could wait till later for them to tackle, "Anything else that seemed not to fit?"

"Something about having 'miscarried once with Mark' and how it 'wasn't fair he lost Evelyn after she'd lived for nearly a year.' Now I'll admit that threw me." A look of horror hit the cowboy, "Hey Doc . . . Do you think the fans could have . . . Mpreged him, if you know what I mean?" He said it in a hushed tone, and a shifty look in his eyes.

Dr. Iplier sometimes forgot how much of a genuine idiot Ed was, then the other ego would say things like this. "No Ed. They didn't 'Mpreg' him." Finally, the urge was too much and he delivered a swat to Ed's ear, "They can't do that you idiot. Not unless nearly all of them unanimously decided to, and I think we would have heard about that."

Ed tried to hide his relief, that the fans couldn't magically impregnate him, by rubbing his ear and defending his point, "Don't be too hard on me. I recon a lot of folks would have thought the same thing. Do you have any other ideas?"

That stumped the doctor, but that didn't mean Ed was correct, "No but jumping to conclusions is what got us into this situation in the first place. So instead of making wild theories, we're going to pretend to be decent for once in our lives, and wait for Dark to explain on his own terms. At this point I think to save what's left of his pride he may have to, so there's no point to it anyways."

Ed was about to snap something back at Dr. Iplier when a knock sounded at the doctor's door.

Dr. Iplier stood, and made a motion telling Edgar that they would pick the conversation latter. He strolled across the room to open the door, revealing Google standing stiffly on the other side. The Android waited only for a moment before speaking, "I have done as requested. Silver Shepherd is in his room with a cold compress, And Bim has been temporarily transferred to your quarters."

The doctor smiled at the droid, "Thank you Google. I don't know what I would do without you."

The android seemed to take that as a question, "Your productivity would lower by sixty-eight percent." He then cocked his head, and for a moment Dr. Iplier was struck with the thought that Google looked rather like a dog awaiting praise.

His smile was just a little warmer now, "I suppose it would Google." He then shook that silly thought from his mind, and got to the most important matter at hand, "And Dark? Has he shown back up yet?"

"No. He has not returned to the building, as of yet." Was Googles reply, and the doctor's heart dropped a tiny bit. Hopefully the demon would return sometime soon, and they could get some answers out of this mess.

Until then Dr. Iplier had a family to look after.


	5. Storytime Dinner

For the first time in his existence, Dr. Iplier was relieved when Wilford got himself shot.

It had been two weeks since the incident, and no one had seen Dark. There had been the same reports of him as always, that popped up all over their realm, Anti had even spotted him, but none of the Ipliers had personally seen hide nor hair of the demon.

Dark had never been gone so long without making sure to leave some protection for the other egos, and usually some notice about how long he would be gone. This time though they were left with nothing.

The last two weeks had been more stressful than Dr. Iplier had hoped for. Instead of pulling together in the face of their leader's absence, they started to turn on one another. The Host and Ed had practically severed all ties. Bim and Shepherd were at each other's throats regularly, and since the Host wasn't on speaking terms with Ed nether was Bim. Google had generally begun to separate himself from the others, sticking to his charging station, except for when he was running tests for the Doctor. Bing was refusing to step through the door, instead practically moved in with the Septics. The smaller egos had mostly been hoping back and forth between the two homes.

With this social climate, it was obvious there hadn't been many "family" breakfasts of late, as such Dr. Iplier was sitting in his office alone, with a cup of black coffee and a few pieces of toast.

So, it really shouldn't have surprised anyone that when Dark appeared in the doorway of his office, supporting a bleeding Wilford Warfstache, that he screamed, "Dark? Thank fucking God!"

Dark wasn't amused, a tight stressed expression across his face as his aura fluttered wildly around him, "Doctor, I would appreciate it if you would help Mr. Warfstache, instead of sitting there a gaping at me."

"Oh! Oh alright." He Shacked the shock from himself he picked himself up from his seat, and scurry to help the demon with the load that was Wilford.

They began to walk the groaning madman to the examination table, "What happened to him this time?" Finally, they got him to their destination, and picked him up slightly to lay him down on the table.

"A gunshot wounds. He forgot to disarm one of his 'guest'" Dark unbuttoned Wilford's shirt, and shushed the other ego softly when Wil moaned in pain. Once he had managed to pull off the blooded shirt, a bullet wound on Wil's side, bleeding steadily was reviled

Dr. Iplier cursed and got to work, "The bastard that did this dead?"

An almost pleased sound left the demon, "I made sure of it."

For a moment, he felt sorry for the guest, but then Wilford let out a moan. Dr. Iplier changed his mind. He hoped the whoever did this suffered.

"Dark, I am thrilled to see you, but I need to get to work." not taking his eyes of his job, "But I need to be able to trust that you will still be in the building when I am done."

Dark was silent for a moment before giving a nod, "Certainty Doctor."

"Then get the hell out of here, and let me work."

The demon stood there for a moment longer, "I expect Wilford to make a full recovery, Doctor. I'm certain you will see to that." He turned to leave, only to be confronted with the Iplier egos clustered at the exit, like a group of dogs whose master had just come home. Dr. Iplier was slightly uncomfortably with how accurate that metaphor was.

Bim grinned ear to ear at Dark, "Thank God you're back Dark, I think Googs was planning on killing us." The android didn't look even slightly offended at the accusation, and Shepherd took that as incentive to step away from Google.

"And it would have been effective." Google shot back but didn't take his eyes off Dark, looking as close to excited as a computer could get, "Though I do admit, without your presence our standards fell greatly."

Each of the egos seemed they had so point they desperately wanted to convey to the demonic ego, but before they could Dark let out a dismissive noise, "Yes, yes you all are very excited to see me. But get out of my way. We'll speak at dinner."

He began to push his way through them when Ed, still in his cast, grabbed him by the wrist. The two looked at each other for a moment, before Ed spoke, "It's good to have you back."

The blue in Dark's aura flared momentarily, and he nodded slightly, "It's good to be back." He then jerked his wrist out of Ed's grasp, and continued down the hall.

No time to think about that though. A member of his family had a gun wound and it was his job to fix it.

By the time dinner had rolled around, Dr. Iplier had done what he could for Wilford. All that was left now was to wait.

Dr. Iplier sat to the side of Wil, watching him breath. The man looked almost peaceful laying there, free of madness. A selfish part of the doctor wished he could just stay like that, it must be more pleasant for Wilford. It was free of all the struggles that Wil went through, that was for sure. The doctor couldn't count all the time he'd had to have had Wilford held down and sedated for his own safety, or forced pills down his throat as he cried.

He grunted slightly, he shouldn't be thinking like that. He stood to leave, but as he began to leave he felt a week tug on tail of his jacket.

He looked back to see that Wilford had limply twisted his hands in it, and was looking blearily up at him.

"Wil? You're awake? You shouldn't have woken up for another-''

"Damien, have you seen Celine? She looks beautiful tonight." The words ghosted out of Wil, almost like a prayer, "She's wearing the dress I bought her for Christmas. Do you think she would marry me Dames? I wish she would." His eyes hazed slightly, he clearly wasn't seeing a doctor's office or even Dr. Iplier, "I think I'd be the luckiest man alive if I had her."

As tears rolled down his cheek, he fell back to sleep.

Dinner was much quieter than usual, filled with an expectant energy, all eyes on Dark who sat silently at the end of the table, flatly not acknowledging any of the other egos. The message was clear, he wouldn't be talking till dinner was served.

Google, who had taken to cooking with a surprising vigor, was applying the final touches to a pork roast. The side dishes had already been placed on the table, and Shepherd had already tried to snag a taste and been promptly admonished by Ed several times.

The doctor secretly thought that the reason that the android enjoyed cooking as much as he did was that he was allowed to be creative, while still being useful. Of course, he would never point this out, if he did he was certain that Google would see it as an insult and quit. He didn't want to deprive the bot of one of his few joys.

Soon enough Google had completed the meal and was placing the roast on the table, per usual everyone complemented the droid, and thanked him. Only once Google had seated himself between the doctor and Bim did Dark speak, "How is Will doing?"

Dr. Iplier paused in his eating and considered this for a moment, "He's stable. Before I left he was asking for a woman named Celine, and thought I was someone else, but don't worry he fell back to sleep."

Dark's shell convulsed slightly at that, "Yes, I suppose you will be curious about that." He took a deep breath and slid his eyes around the room, "What we are about to discuss is not to be shared with anyone else. I am only telling you because if I don't it will cause to many difficulties. Do you all understand? If I find that you do share this information, I assure you that it will not be a pleasant experience for anyone."

"The Host informs Darkiplier that no one in this room will reveal his private information." The Host was a still as the grave, "Darkiplier's secrets will be protected."

Dark seemed to almost deflate upon hearing The Host's word, "I suppose I will have to start this by telling you all that Wilford and I don't come from this timeline."

There was a palatable disbelief in the room, Shepherd asked hesitantly, "You mean you're from an alternate universe?"

The demon nodded briskly, "We weren't egos there. We were just humans. With our own lives and family, and aspirations."

"This sounds insane, you know that, right?" Ed's brows were furred together.

"If you won't believe me, I suppose it's pointless to tell you." Dark's eyes snapped to Ed, his lips curling back in disgust. The demon still wasn't over last time, it seemed.

Ed held up his good hand in submission, "I wasn't saying I didn't believe you, just that it sounded far-fetched. If you're the one saying it though I'll believe it."

Bim nodded anxiously, "Of course we believe you Dark. Don't take anything Ed says to badly, you know how he is." Little affirmatives were heard from all around the table.

Dark took a moment to straighten himself, pulsations of blue and red shining around him, "I suppose we'll continue then."

Google cocked his head to the side, "We?"

Something that almost sounded like a snicker unmerged from Dark, "I suppose you'd be the one to pick up in that first. Yes. We." He reached for his drink and took a few gulps of it before continuing, "Originally I wasn't one person, but two, twin siblings actually. Their names were Damien and Celine."

"And how did they. . . turn into you?" Dr. Iplier asked, feeling more than a little lost.

"Right into it, hmmm? Mark and William both fell for Celine. She only had eyes for William though. Damien on the other hand would have been happy to receive the love of either one, something he never got. But with the help of alcohol, and a man he could forget about that."

"In 1907, William joined the army, I-'' Dark broke off, and snarled slightly, "Celine thought for sure he was going off to die or he'd forget about her. She planned to move on with her life, and Mark loved her so Celine decided to try and love him back. They had a lovely spring wedding, Damien was best man."

Dark's aura suddenly snapped, causing most of the other egos to nearly jump out of their skin. The demon grit his teeth momentarily, "Then dear old Will, ten years later, came back from the World War one. All types of problems to deal with. Injured, shell shocked. Mark paid for his treatments."

"During this time though Celine and William . . . reconnected. They'd never stopped loving each other. An Affair started up, and Mark found out soon enough. There was no staying at that point so she left with will. Celine had inherited a home from her parents, so she and William moved in there. After three years she got pregnant with a little darling named Evelyn."

"The one that died, right?", Bim asked suddenly, his eyes lit up in recognition. He soon noticed the looks being tossed his way, and shrunk a bit, "Sorry, I'll be quite now."

Dark gazed at Bim, who now cowered closer to The Host almost as if he expected the other ego to protect him, "Yes. The one that died."

"So, you really were a mother? You gave birth to something?" Ed's voice snapped Dark's gaze to himself. The cowboy studied Dark in something close to bafflement, "And it was with Wilford? I would have thought you'd have better taste."

Ed had successfully shifted all of Dark's attention to himself and away from Bim.

"A part of me was a mother. But Celine is dead. Just as Damien is." Dark took another moment to calm himself, "Their fractured parts were simply used to build me. As such I have some of their issues. You've already experienced Celine's night-terrors, and Damien has these horrible self-destructive urges. It's a miracle he lived long enough to make me."

"I'm going to write you a prescription of Xanax." Dr. Iplier started formulating a treatment plan, "How long have you been this way?"

"A little under a century now."

"Jesus fucking Christ! You should have gotten treatment sooner, God what were you thinking. And don't think, I don't see the way you limp about." The doctor didn't mind that he was screaming at a demon, in fact it didn't register. What he was screaming at was an idiot. "When I thought you were smart enough to know when you needed help, I respected your privacy."

Dark, who had never been spoken to like this watched Dr. Iplier in something akin to awe.

"From now on now you are you report to me every night for your meds, do you hear me? Oh, don't you fucking dare look at me like that you glorified emo. You know what? Every Thursday night you and I are going to be doing a medical check-up. How do you feel about that now? Hmmm? Little less than a fucking century my ass."

Dr. Iplier was going to continue when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, he swung to also snap at whoever thought they had the right to interrupted him. He was met with Googles stoic face.

"What the hell do you want right now Google?"

Googles eyes slid from the doctor's down to his plate, "If you continue to chastises Dark, your food will get cold."

There was complete silence for a moment, and suddenly Shepherd began to laugh. He was quickly followed by Bim, Dr. Iplier, and then even The Host.

Gasping for breath Shepherd spoke, "Here we are. . . Having this tense moment . . . The Doc is ripping him a new one and you're worried about his food getting cold!" this set of a new peal of laughter from everyone who wasn't Google. Darks lips even twitched slightly.

"I was not worried. It simply seemed important that he knew." The droid scowled seeming not to understand what the hysterics were about, "Meals are less enjoyable when they are not consumed at the intended temperature."

"The Host concedes," Little tremors of laughter going through his body, "Meals are less enjoyable that way."

Dark stood brushing himself down, "As fun as this has been, I'm going to sit with Wil now."

The room went silent again.

Bim looked slightly desperate, "You haven't finished explaining yet! All we know -''

"Is what you need to know." Dark spoke over Bim, "I can't tell you all my secrets. If I did I wouldn't be interesting anymore." With that the demon left.

Dr. Iplier was still going to make that idiot come in every Thursday.


	6. Sleep

Dark woke to the sound of Wilford's cries.

The demon had been forced to bed, away from Wil's bedside, by the doctor. He knew Dr. Iplier had meant well, but that didn't make him want to slaughter the man any less. His job for the last ninety-five years had been to care for the lunatic, and at this moment his place was at Wilford's side. Apparently, the man agreed.

When Dark open his eyes, he was greeted to the sight of Wilford standing over him, wracked with sobs.

He was up in an instant, his fragmented soul lurched at the sight, "Wilford! What are you doing out of bed?" His hands wrapped around the other man's trembling shoulders, guiding him to the bed and sitting him down, "You could make yourself worse and then what would I do? You have to think of these things."

Wil's eyes looked blearily up at him, "You disappeared. You always disappear." His words sounded almost hateful, "You play such awful jokes on me, DA. Worst of all you never let the joke stop. It's not funny anymore."

The demon felt his grip tighten around Wilford's shoulders. Of course, when Wilford remembered, he only spoke to the soul not within Dark. Rage boiled up in him. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

"Get over yourself." Dark growled out, his teeth bared, and aura flared around him, "There's no joke William. There never was. Do you really thing you're worth all this? You're worth nothing. Nothing at all." He was worth everything though. Everything. That's why this hurt so much, that's why Dark has given everything he had to the conservation of this man.

Wil blinked, almost like he was trying to wake up as tears streamed from his eyes, "I just want Celine, Damien, and Evelyn back. I want them so badly." Suddenly his hands were fisted in Dark's shirt, "DA, I know you must know where they are. You must. I'll give you everything I own if you just let me see them."

Just like that the rage seeped out of the demon, and instead left him achingly tired. Dark let go of Wil shoulders, and let himself collapse on the bed beside Wilford "I can't show them to you Wil. They're gone."

Wilford didn't seem to notice. Evidently his mind had already changed topics. His face scrunched up, "I can't get the blasted song out of my head." He griped his hair and jerked it slightly, ""O Sole Mio". It was the song Celine and I first dance to. Did you know that DA?"

Irritation welled up in Dark again, and without thought he snapped out, "No Wil, don't be stupid. Our first dance was to "Somewhere a voice is calling." We Danced to "'O Sole Mio" the night you found out I was pregnant."

Now Wilford did seem to notice. His eyes had locked in on Dark, more intense than they had been in years, "Celine?" everything about his posture had changed, almost predatory.

Dark felt as if the room had closed in on him, narrowed down to only himself and William. He had kept Wil blissfully unaware for nighty-five years, and this was the night he let it out? Maybe having shared so much with the others had loosened his tongue, maybe it was his recent lack of control. Whatever it was though it didn't matter.

All that mattered were Wilford's eyes focused on him. They looked desperate, hungry. Even more than hungry. They were starved, and Dark was exactly what Wil wanted.

Dark wet his lips, "Wil-''

Suddenly Dark had been dragged into Wilford's arms. The mad man had begun to sob again, his hands ran over the demon's face and body, and checked over every detail of their captive. After a few moments, it seemed Wilford had sufficiently examined Dark's body. He then ignored the other egos weak protests as he pulled him further into his lap, griped the demons face in the palms of his hands, and made sure to lock eyes. Wil's eyes swam with tears, but they were happy and clear.

Dark had never seen anything more beautiful.

Wilford whispered, almost reverent, "Celine." and their lips crashed together.

It wasn't lustful, or even passionate. It was devoted, and filled with a desperation Dark would call pathetic. Disgusting even. He returned the kiss and matched Wilford's desperation with his own, sobbing into the kiss.

He found he didn't care how pathetic it was.

After a few minutes the two broke apart, trembling and gasping for air.

Once Wilford could finally speak again, he breathed out, "Why didn't you tell me?" his voice was confused, like that of a child. Dark felt whatever heart he had left break.

"I couldn't Wil." Dark sagged in Wilford's grip, "Your mind is gone, Wil. You knowing who I was wasn't an option. It was, still is, too big of a risk. Besides, I'm not just Celine. I know how hard this is for you to understand, but I'm not. I'm just the salvage of Celine. I'm not even the good parts. Damien is in here as well, and even he couldn't make me into something redeemable."

Dark felt Wil's arms tighten around him, and shots of pain ran through him as his broken bones shifted slightly out of place. He wouldn't make a sound though, this brief moment with Wil was too important to interrupt.

"Are you still them though?"

The demon looked up at Wilford, and for a moment he could forget he wasn't William anymore, "I am. But I'm not-''

"Then I love you."

He said it with such surety that it stopped Dark in his tracks. It took him another moment to form a coherent thought, his parts were so scrambled, "I'm a demon, Wil. I can't love you like we used to."

"That's alright. As long as I can have you I'll be happy." Dark could see Wil's eyes glazing back into insanity.

A shuddering sob escaped Dark's lips, "I understand the deference between us now. You kept your soul, but lost your sanity. I, on the other hand, kept my sanity, but lost my soul."

"Sanity never was my strongest trait, so not too much of a lost." Wilford giggled and buried his face into the crook of Dark's neck, "Have you seen Evelyn, Celine? I thought I heard her crying."

The words nearly broke Dark, "She's. . . She's alright, dear. Just taking a nap." He could hear her crying. He could always hear her crying.

Wilford nodded daftly, and despite having lost any sanity in his eyes he still looked at Dark with a tenderness the dark ego hadn't thought he'd ever receive again, "She's growing up so quickly isn't she?"

No she wasn't. She hadn't grown an inch in ninety-five and a half years. "That she is love."

Wilford laid back on the bed taking Dark with him, not letting go of the man, "We should sleep while we can, she could wake up at any minute." The man kissed Dark's eyelids, and his mustache tickled Dark's grayed skin.

No, she wouldn't, "Right as always. Sleep tight William, I love you."

"I love you more." Wilford then flited back into sleep easily. Why wouldn't he? All was right in his world now.

Dark on the other hand. . . At least he had someone to cling to.

The crying would never stop.


	7. A Good Talk

Dark regretted he had told the others anything. Actually, he regretted he told Ed anything. The others while being curious, in general tried to respect Dark. Whether it was out of genuine regard for the demon, or fear he didn't know. What he did know was that Ed seemed to have neither of these things.

This is why the dark ego, at five thirty in the morning, cursed himself for having decided to get up early. He had somehow forgotten that Ed made a habit of being up at the crack of Dawn. Ed had said it had something to do with him having been a farm hand.

That's beside the point though. The specifics of it does't matter, what matters is it landed the demon with being alone with the cowboy for hours.

A groan passed through Dark's lips as he massaged his temples, and tried to block out the grating tone that was Ed Edgar. Sat at the breakfast, with Ed directly across from him there was no escape. If he tried to leave the man would only follow him, except if he killed the cowboy. As tempted as Dark was to take that route, he had to remind himself that murdering fellow Ipliers was not an option. He was well and truly trapped.

"So, you sucked Mark's dick?"

Dark wanted to rip his ears off, as he growled out, "Celine did, so yes."

"And he wasn't like an ego or something, it was Mark?" Ed seemed to struggle with the concept, his brows furred.

Dark really wanted to kill Ed, maybe if he hid the body in the human realm the others would never find out, "A Mark, from an alternate timeline. Not the Mark that you know."

Ed leaned closer moving his good hand in front of him, the other arm would still be in a cast for another three weeks, as if he was sorting his thoughts, "But he was Mark. He was just as much Mark as our Mark? And you had sex with him?"

"Multiple times."

Ed seemed baffled, the concept too bizarre for him to comprehend. The cowboy Leaned back, and for one shining moment Dark thought the interrogation was over. That hope was crushed though as all Dark's dreams are.

". . . You also had sex with Wil?"

Okay, that was enough. Dark slammed his hands down on the table, his aura whipping violently around him, "God fucking damnit, Ed. Yes. I had sex with Wil. That's how babies are made after all." Dark barred his teeth his eyes taking on a dangerous, well more dangerous than before, glint. "You seem rather interested in Celine's sex life, why don't I tell you about Damien's? Do you want the list of all the men that got in his pants in alphabetical order or chronological? Oh, how about in order of best to worst? I can't quite recall all of them but enough of them left strong enough impression that I can certainty put together a top ten's list for you."

Ed looked slightly sick, his mouth working but no sound coming out.

Dark had found something that shut the idiot up, with a sadistic sense of accomplishment he pushed on, "Actually why don't I just tell you about his favorite positions. He particularly enjoyed-''

"Alright! I get it. You can stop now. I'll be damned before you finish that sentence." The man had a frantic look in his eye, looking like he was ready to physically restrain Dark if he kept sharing."

"I'll stop, but only if you allow me to finish my coffee in peace."

Ed nodded, quick to agree to anything that would placate Dark, "It's a Deal."

"Good."

An hour or so latter Dark had not only drained his mug but the entire pot as well, and Ed had not spoken a single word. Dark had almost convinced himself it was over, but just before he left the room Ed's voice stopped him.

"One more question."

Dark had to stop himself from attacking the other as he turned to look back at Ed who had not moved from his seat, "What do you want?"

"Are you having sex with Wil nowadays?" Ed's voice sounded slightly different than before, but Dark didn't take too much notice of this.

"That is none of your business." His skin practically sizzled with anger at this point.

Ed let out some breath, his arm crossing over his chest, "It is actually. If you are I want to tell you I just don't think it's right."

The demon couldn't believe what he heard come for Ed's lips, "My my, I didn't think you would be so small minded, Mr. Edgar. You don't say anything when Bim brings home-''

"Christ. You know I'm not like that." Ed rubbed his hand over his face, "What I'm meaning to say is I don't think Wilford can give consent. He's missing most all of his marbles, Dark. If he's agreeing to have sex with you, I don't think he completely understands what he's doing."

Dark himself felt sick now, "He knows well enough."

Ed gave him a tired look, "He hasn't called you by your name in a week or so. Wil just thinks you're Celine now, not whatever the hell you are. Frankly, I don't even understand what you are."

"After ninety-five years I'm allowed this."

"It's not right Dark. It ain't moral." Ed's hand tightened into a fist, his knuckles turning white.

The demon felt cold now, he had finally been returned Wil. He wasn't about to lose him, "He's loved Celine since we were fourteen years old. Even if he doesn't quite understand, that's still the same. He still loves me."

"Even if that stuck everything else has changed Dark, and if he can't understand that, he can't properly say yes. It's not moral."

"And since when did you care what is moral? If I am not mistaken your field is child trafficking." Dark's aura twisting around him. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

Ed looked at him deadpanned, not seeming to mind how agitated the other ego had become, "Now I know I ain't the best man out there but Wil is family. That's when I start to care."

"How noble of you."

With a sigh, the cowboy stood and stretched slightly, before walking towards the door and beside Dark. "Don't get so riled up. I just brought this up to tell you if I catch wind that you're taking advantage of Wilford, by God, I'll find some way to hurt you." He locked eyes with the demon, "I know you're stronger than me and I know you can kill me, but it will be a cold day in hell before I stand aside and let you have your way."

Ed then grinned at Dark and clapped him on the shoulder, "Good talk. I'll be seeing you around dinner." With that the cowboy left, leaving Dark completely alone.

Alone with the crying, and now with no one to cling to.


	8. Given

Dark woke to the sound of knocking. He groaned and pulled his blanket tighter around himself. He hoped that whatever gremlin thought waking him at this hour would go away, unfortunately the knocking only got louder much to Dark's displeasure. The universe must truly want him exhausted, that is the only explanation for all these interrupted nights.

A more urgent set of knocks came at the door, but this time they were followed by a hissed voice, "God damnit Dark! Open the door, I'm not fooling here!"

Ed. It was Ed Edgar. Of course, it was Ed Edgar. The man's entire purpose in life seemed to be to torture Dark in one way or another, so of course he would be the one to wake the demon up at some ungodly hour.

"Dark! Just get your ass up." Ed's hushed voice came through the door again.

Groaning Dark extracted himself from his perfect cocoon of warmth, and shambled his way to the door. He fumbled with the lock, and muttered every curse he knew under his breath. Finally, he swung the door open, "What the hell do you wa—''

Dark stopped his words abruptly when he noticed what was nestled in Ed's arms. Swaddled tightly in a soft green blanket was a tiny newborn, fast asleep.

He turned slowly shifted up to Ed again, a dumb founded look on his face.

Ed shifted slightly, "She was born last night, but she's missing an arm. Can't sell her like she is." The cowboy seemed to almost stumble over his thoughts. Dark had never seen Ed unsure in his entire life, "Normally I have methods for handling these types of things. . . But I had a thought. I know you were a mother some time ago, and I thought you might—You might take her on, if you know what I mean."

Dark wordlessly held out his arms to take the child, at which point Ed quickly passed the girl over to him. Now with the babe in his arms, Dark moved further into his room, sat down in a chair and begin to unswaddle the child.

The demon took careful observation of her. Ed had been right; her left arm was missing at the shoulder. No matter. Dark moved on to count her fingers on her right hand, and then to count her tiny toes to which she made a small gurgled noise. Five fingers, ten toes. She was perfect, the most perfect thing Dark had held in some great many years.

"Her name?" Dark asked quietly, his eyes never moved from the perfect girl in his arms.

He could hear a sigh of relief from Ed, "Thought I'd leave that up to you."

"Maria Frances Fischbach."

Ed made a small surprised sound, and walked further into Dark's room to kneel beside him, "That was quick. Any reason?"

Dark ran his thumb across Maria's checks and wondered at how soft they were, "Maria was my mother's name, and Frances was the name of Wil's grandmother. Lovely woman."

"Family names then. Any reason for Fischbach though? Thought you wouldn't want any part of Mark around her." Ed shifted himself slightly to have a better view of the baby. Of Dark's perfect daughter.

Dark couldn't quite bring himself to be annoyed with Ed at the moment, "I told you William was Mark's adopted brother. They shared a surname."

"Well I'll be damned," Ed chuckled slightly, "Somehow I thought than man had always been Warfstache. Suppose that doesn't make much sense though."

Dark suddenly had a thought. His eyes darted to Ed, and he drew his little girl closer to him, "Did you bring supplies?"

"Supplies?" Ed blinked slightly at to sudden worried tone in Darks voice.

"Yes, Supplies. She'll need a feeding soon, and dippers, a bassinet, wipes—''

Ed moved his hand to grip Dark's shoulder, "Don't you worry about that, Papa— No that ain't right. . . Mama?" He watched Dark for any objection and then continued when he got none, "Mama. I've got everything you need."

Dark's tension melted away slightly under Ed's touch, "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent sure of it, Mama. Babies are my business, I know how to take care of them."

Dark nodded his eyes turning back to the sleeping Maria, "She's beautiful." He noted that he could hold her in one hand if need be.

Slowly, and carefuly the demon stood, as not to wake his sleeping baby, "I'm obviously not going back to sleep tonight. Let's start baby proofing the building, and setting everything up. Set the crib up we need to lay her down, and after that go get Google, he should be Done charging by now. While you're doing that I'll be making some formula, and getting the Doctor. He can watch her while we work."

Ed Blinked wide eyed at Dark, "Now wait one hot second! I have been working all day and night, I deserve to have a nice hot plate of supper and get some rest."

The older ego barely paid him any mind as he headed out the door, "And If you hadn't brought a baby home you could have done that. But you did, and as such you will not be getting any sleep tonight." With that he was off to the Doctor's room.

Five loud Knocks later the Doctor's door swung open, "I swear to God Shepard, if you wake me up one more time—Oh, hello Dark." The Doctor looked bedraggled, and practically unconcise.

The Doctor looked at him blearily, and blinked slightly he eyes clearing as he finally noticed what Dark was holding, "Why the hell do you have a baby?!" He was suddenly very awake, and very, very stressed looking.

"Meet Maria. The newest addition to our family." Dark made a motion to indicate he intended to hand the baby over to the doctor, "She will be in your care tonight."

Dr. Iplier took Maria without hesitation, "Where did you get a baby?" There was horror in his eyes.

"You can thank Ed."

The horror solidified in the doctor's eyes, and in a voice of disbelief he whispered, "That fucking idiot." Despite that though he held the child slightly more protectively. He probably realized her being brought here was the best possible outcome for her, here at least the girl would be safe from the gritty outcomes most of Ed's broods face.

"Precisely Doctor. Also watch your language. I do not want my daughters first words to be 'fucking Idiot.''' Dark then straightened himself, "I trust that you will be able to handle her?"

Dr. Iplier nodded, "Of course, but Daughter? she's yours?"

"That is what Ed brought her here to be."

the other ego nodded slightly, "This is going to be hard work Dark, not just for you, but all of us. A baby is going to be a major change in all of our lives." He sighed through his nose, "Have you spoken to Wilford about this? I know he doesn't really get a say, but he need to be made aware."

"I'll make him aware of it in the morning doctor."

The doctor clearly realized he wasn't going to be getting anywhere so he simply nodded.

Dark turned and began to walk down the hall again, but called over his shoulder, "I'll be back with the formula, and dippers."

Dark knew one thing for sure. The Doctor was right; their world was about to change.


	9. Yellow and Green

It had been seven months since Maria's arrival to their little family, and Dark had been right. She had changed everything. The egos had been a family before, but somehow having a tiny creature among them pushed them into roles they previously never would have filled. Frankly, to Dark it was almost comical.

Silver had most naturally fallen into it, and spent every moment he had to spare on Maria. The demon thought that the hero might be slightly desperate for one family member that was innocent of any crime. Sometimes Dark felt sorry for the hero. He was certainty outnumbered, all of his other family members were what he normally fought against.

The others had also all taken to her in their own ways, even Google, who had Ironically become a favorite uncle of Maria's. It was quite amusing to see the man killing droid, let himself, without complaint, be swatted and slobbered on by a tiny human.

The Host read her bedtime stories.

Bim played with her.

Ed generally adored her, and the Doctor while unsure of an infant looked at Maria as if she had hung the moon and the stars.

The only ego that worried Dark was Wilford.

The man certainty loved the girl, he considered her his daughter, and strived to treat her as such. It even seemed Wil had a horrible fear that Maria might feel excluded due to her being adopted, his own adoptive parents having favored Mark.

The problem came with the fact that Wil lived in a world where Evelyn was alive, and death a myth.

There had already been incidents where one of the egos had caught Wilford doing something that would have killed Maria if he hadn't been stopped, for example covering her face with his hand to stop her from crying. The first time The Host had been the one to catch him, and had nearly broken Wilford's arm in rage. There was no use in explaining it to Wil, he simply couldn't grasp the concept that anything he did could result in death, and as such he was never allowed to be alone with Maria.

Which was exactly what Dark was seeing to at this moment.

Dark had perched himself in a chair by the window, as he observed Wil play on the ground with his daughter. Wilford hovered over the little girl to kiss her cheeks and stomach, as she gleefully swatted him with her hand and giggled. Dark thinks he may have heard the other ego utter the phrase, "I got your tummy wummy." Somewhere in the midst of his assault of raspberry's.

In truth though, he had lost track of what they were doing some time ago, and instead allowed himself to just enjoy the feeling of the sun as it hit against his skin.

Moments like these had become treasures to the demon, and he hoarded them greedily. Things had changed for him since Maria's joining. For one he now spent almost all of his time in the building, having become the stereotype of a work at home parent. Dark did all of his work within his in-home office, before he had been quite mobile in their realm preferring to meet his "clients" in person.

That no longer was an option with little Maria here. The others all had their own jobs, and Dark would be damned before he left his Daughter in the care of the android. Google may be kind to the girl, but he didn't fully understand beings made of flesh and bone.

The egos had all agreed not to let Maria be known of, it was too much of a risk in their realm. If she was heard of there was a near certainty that some idiot would try something. As such, no one but the Ipliers knew of her existence, not even the Septics, though that was mostly due to the Septic family containing a particular ego. Dark would never admit this, but he had had a nightmare of Anti holding his daughter.

It had also been hellish as of recent to explain why he wasn't willing to meet with his clients. Most had taken it in stride and hadn't questioned the demon, others had been very offended, and some even reacted quite violently. For those, Dark had seen to it that they were reeducated in their manors.

His thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"Hey Mama, I hate to interrupt this, but Wil here has to get himself to work." Ed's drawl came from the door. Since Maria's arrival the cowboy hadn't called him anything but that, and sadly a good portion of the Ipliers had caught on. Dark would never forget the moment Google had looked him dead in the eye, and with the gravest tone called him 'Mama.' The android had apparently thought that was his 'new-user-designation.'

Dark made a point of not to look at Ed as he continued his prattle, "I'll take him with me on my way to work, and drop him off."

Wilford let out a moan as if he was in pain, before he delivered one last kiss to Maria's stomach, came to his feet, and picked up the tiny girl who immediately fisted her hand in his mustache to jerk on it violently as she giggled. Wil took this all without complaint and in response simply delivered a kiss to Maria's hand, before walking across the room to deliver the girl to Dark's waiting arms.

Wil delivered a swift kiss to Darks lips, "I'll be seeing you later tonight Miss. Celine and Miss. Maria." Now days the edge of insanity never quite left Wil's eyes completely, "You behave yourselves while I'm gone."

Dark quirked his lips holding Maria securely to himself, "Of course dear. You know me, ever the rule follower." He didn't have it in him to refuse the mad man's delusions, and most days Dark played along with it.

"You know what they say happens to pretty girls that lie don't you? They get punished."

"Christ! Break it up you two. You can flirt later. Just—Get- Get to the car Wil." Ed's slightly disgusted voice emanated from the doorway.

Wil huffed slightly, placing one more kiss on both Dark and Maria's foreheads, before heading out of the room.

Dark thought he was alone now until Ed spoke one more time, "I hope that flirting ain't going to come to nothing."

"It won't. You know it won't."

Dark could hear the cowboy laugh, "Good, cause I don't want to let that good talk we had go to waste. The man can't consent. Remember that."

After a second Dark heard footfalls signaling Ed's departure.

Dark let himself sag slightly, before looking down at the bright eyed Maria, "You must be very tired, darling. I think it's time for a nap." Her response was a little gurgle.

Dark begun to walk back to his room, "You will be quite the talker one day, I can tell. Soon enough you'll be walking and talking. I'll hardly be able to keep up with you."

In a few minutes, he made it to his door and entered into it his room completely dark except for the corner Ed and Silver had remodeled into a nursery.

The demon had to commend his fellow egos, they had done a marvelous job. The corner was plush with velvety greens, and soft yellows, and the finishing touch was Bim's painted flowers and bees along the wall, giving the effect of a meadow. They had been emphatic that the little area have something more than the black that otherwise consumed Dark's room. To quote the doctor, "The kid will be depressed before she one year's old if we don't fix it up."

Dark didn't want to admit it, but as he set his daughter down in her basinet, he had to agree.

"Sleep tight, darling. I'll be back in a bit, but Mama has to go and do some work." The girl yawned hugely before batting her pretty eyes at him. Dark knew he was doomed when she finally learned to speak, she could ask him for the moon and he'd find a way to do it, "Mama loves you very much."

He placed a final kiss upon her brow, and headed to his office.

* * *

He was alone in the building now, with the exception of Maria. All of the others had gone off to their jobs, and frankly Dark didn't want to know where The Host had gone off to.

The demon hated it. He had learned long ago that when he was alone the crying got worse, almost as if the lack of noise made his mind want to fill it. He had worked out methods to alleviate this, for example he would turn on the radio to the maximum volume, and put shoes in the dryer.

Today though that was not working.

The crying was loud, so very, very loud as it rattled around Dark's skull, and it would not stop. It was echoing off every surface, and seemed to have multiple sources, and Dark couldn't think. He couldn't think. All there was, was screaming. Horrible screams and they wouldn't stop, they wouldn't stop.

His fingers clawed into his hair and clasped at his ears as he tried to block it out, but it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work.

He should have gone to check Maria –Evelyn. Evelyn. Evelyn. Have to find Evelyn. – ages ago but he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything but listen to the crying. He was trapped.

* * *

Hours later the crying stopped.

Dark realized dimly that he was laying on the ground, and that his head was bleeding, he must have cut into his skin when he was clawing at his ears. He could also taste copper in his mouth. Funny, he couldn't remember biting his tongue. Remember.

Maria.

The demon was up in an instant and was racing to his daughter. He had to get to her, he had to get to her, he had to, she had to, she had to, she had to, she had to, had to, had to, had to.

Had to.

Had to.

Had to.

Bursting through the doors, she crashed down beside the basinet reaching into it, "Maria! Maria—'' No. Marias skin was cold. Cold as ice. She pulled her perfect baby into her arms, and cradled her close. Why wasn't she moving?!

"Maria, Wake up now. Mama's here." She shook the baby, but Maria didn't even blink. How could she be asleep with her eyes open? There were tear tracks all down the beautiful girl's face, Maria had been crying, "Mama didn't hear you crying, darling but I'm here now. I'm here now." But Maria didn't acknowledge her.

Another shake, this time harder, "Wake up! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I love you, I love you, I love you, I'm sorry, please just wake up, wake up, wake up—''

Maria felt stiff in her arms.

No. Please, God no.

No.

No.

No.

Please no.

Please

Please

Pleas

Ple

Please

Pe

Plesa

ples

Dark felt his aura explode around him.


	10. He Earned It

**Warnings:** **attempted suicide and attempted assisted suicide. Please be careful**.

Dark woke to the sound of a dripping IV, and drowsily he opened his eyes, to find that he was in the buildings in home clinic. Why was he here? He couldn't remember, he was pulling an absolute blank. He twisted in the be, only to feel a firm hand grip his shoulder, "Stop. You'll rip out your IV Dark."

Dark turned his eyes blearily to his right, to see Dr. Iplier siting at his side, his eyes red and puffy. He had been crying. Why had he been crying? Dark couldn't remember, he just felt tired so very, very tired.

"Doctor? What happened?" Darks tongue felt heavy in his mouth, and it hurt. He moved it around a little bit and felt stitching along the tip and down the side. How had he done that? He couldn't remember.

Dr. Iplier looked like he had swallowed a lemon, and the other ego racked his fingers through his hair, "We found you about five hours ago. Your aura . . . It did some massive damage to your room. You were at the eye of the 'storm' so you mostly got out alright, but you lost a lot of blood from that tongue wound, and those head wounds . . . We'll have to watch them to make sure they don't get infected." The doctor then let out a little sound that almost sounded like a sob, "And Maria. . . I'm—I'm so sorry, Dark." The man then started to bawl.

Maria

Dark remembered now, he remembered everything.

"Where is she? Doctor, where is she?" The demon had to find her, he had to. Everything would be alright if he just had her, she would be alive, she would. "Where. Is. She?"

Somehow in the course of this transition Dark had wrapped a hand around Dr. Iplier's Throat. As he looked at the other ego he saw the man was still crying, but now there was fear in his eyes. Funny, he couldn't remember when he decided to do that. Not of importance. He began to squeeze, and didn't mind at all how the doctor's blunt nails dug in to his skin as he tried desperately to escape, as his legs kicked behind him.

"Tell me where she is, Doctor. Tell me now." Dark growled out as he watched his family member twist helplessly in his grasp, and turn a rather vivid shade of purple. No matter how pleasing the sight was at the moment he couldn't kill him if he wanted answers, so he let the doctor go and took a small bit of satisfaction in watching the other ego gasp and wretch on the floor.

"S—Sh—she . . . She ha—had a . . . Seizure." Dr. Iplier finally managed to voice as he dragged himself away from Dark, "It kill—killed her. Sh—had . . . Mul— . . .tiple seizures."

"You're lying."

Dr. Iplier finally managed to somewhat catch his breath, and dragged himself up onto two feet, "She'd. . . She'd been dead for a long time when we found you. At least nine hours."

In the blink of an eye the doctor lunged forward and Dark felt a sharp pain in his neck. The demon drew back with a hiss, a hand coming to clutch at his skin. Suddenly felt as if he were about to pass out.

"It'll be better when you wake up next time, Dark." Was the last thing the dark ego heard before he faded back into unconsciousness.

* * *

The next time Dark woke it was to the sound Wil's voice as it softly sang, "Somewhere A Voice Is Calling." His eyes opened slowly, to take in his soundings slightly surprised to find he had been moved into Wilford's room, Wil himself sat in the bed with him.

The doctor had been right, everything was much clearer now. Not better, but clearer.

Thinking of the doctor, they must have decided after his interaction with Dr. Iplier it would be best for him to be under the observation of the only other ego as strong as him. Dark groaned, now that he was in a better state of mind cannot believe he had pulled that on the doctor. Of all the ill planed, stupid—

He was broken from his thoughts when he felt Wil's lips press into the top of his head, his arms pulling Dark to him till he was pressed firmly against Wilford.

For a few minutes they stayed like that, just finding comfort in each other, as Wil whispered the final lyrics of the song into the demon's hair.

Eventually though the song came to an end, and there were no more lyrics to sing. Wil let out a little puff of breath, "The others told me you had a rough day, Celine. Said you needed to be looked after." His eyes were soft, and so gentle.

He wouldn't be looking at Dark like that if he had known what he had done. If he knew that the demon's weakness had led to Maria's death. If he knew that Maria had died alone and crying without her mother. He didn't though, after all to him death did not exist.

Dark had a thought, a terrible thought. A horrible, horrible thought, but he supposed it would only be right. Out of everyone, Wilford had the most right to do it. Dark had failed him so many times, had ruined the man in so many ways. It was only fair that Wilford would get to do it. Before that though. . . Dark wanted to do one last thing.

"Kiss me?" Dark looked up at Wilford, who's eyes instantly lit up. The mad man moved so instead of lying beside Dark, his entire body hovered over the other

"Of course."

It was languid kiss, that lasted far longer than it had any right to. Dark clung to every second, desperate to convey what words could not. His hands grasped at Wil and tried to draw him closer, tried to show Wil what he wanted more than anything.

It was when Wil's own hands started to wander a little too far that he had to stop the kiss, Ed's word's echoing in his head. Wilford cannot consent.

The dark ego steeled himself. It was time. Dark broke the kiss panting, "Wil, do you have your gun on you, love?"

A confused look crossed Wilford's flushed face, not understanding why Dark decided to break them up to ask something so obvious, "Of course." He ducked his head back down to lay a trail of kisses down the demon's neck.

Dark shivered slightly at the feeling but pressed on, "I have been so tired recently, you know how hard it is for me to get a good night's sleep." He felt Wilford hum at his collarbone.

Trust me, "I think I would get quite a bit of rest if you shot me, love."

Wil drew back slowly and looked Dark up and down, "It'll hurt quite a bit, Celine. I know you like quick results but I think the doctor would be happy to give you something."

Trust me. Relax to my words. Under my control. Surrender to me. Treasure me. Marvel at me. Everything you need. E. Dark wrapped his arms around Wil drawing him back into the kiss, eyes closed, "Hmmm, but if you shot me I can stay in bed with you. I wouldn't have to leave. You don't want me to leave. . . Right?" Dark's hand trailing down his body.

Wil groaned, and shook his head, no he didn't want Dark to leave.

The demon felt the mad man shift, and suddenly he felt the cold bit of metal against his temple. He reminded himself that he deserved this, that this was what he had always deserved. He kissed Wilford more frantically.

Wil whispered into the kiss, "When you wake up you'll have a horrible headache, I'll have some pain pills waiting for you, darling."

Tears slipped from Darks eyes as his heart pounded, "That's very thoughtful, Wil. I love you so much. I love you more than I am capable of." He pressed against the muzzle of the gun, and waited.

Suddenly the door swung open.

"The Host tells Wilford Warfstache that Bim Trimmer requires assistance in the studio immediately." The Host frantic tone rang out, and Dark felt the gun fall away. In that moment, he hated The Host more than anyone in the world.

With a resigned sigh, Wil rolled his body off of Dark's body and stood. As he buttoned his shirt he asked, "What does Bim want now?"

"Bim Trimmer is having difficulties with an unruly guest."

Wilford's tone lit up, Dark's request forgotten, "I'll be off then." Before Dark could even protest, Wil was out the door.

As soon as the door closed and they were properly alone The Host was at Dark's side.

The demon growled as he glared up at the man, "How dare you—'' He was cut off as the other ego slapped him harshly across the face.

"The Host would like to ask Darkiplier how he dared to try and use Wilford Warfstache for such a purpose." Suddenly his face was inches away from Dark's, and he was snarling, "The Host saw what Darkiplier intended. He knows what Darkiplier was going to use Wilford Warfstache for."

Dark snarled right back his blue aura spiking momentarily, "He has the right to be the one to do it. I deserve it, and he earned the privilege."

"Wilford Warfstache earned the right to kill his most beloved? He has the privilege of unknowingly killing his most sacred?"

"Sounding a bit poetic there, hmmm? Are we having a relapse back into The Author?" The Host slapped him again making sure to make impact with Dark's injuries.

Dark yelped in pain, before being suddenly jerked forward by The Host, "Darkiplier will not do that again." Without warning the other ego droped the demon and Dark fell back on to the bed.

The Host let out a shuddered breath, "The Iplier family has suffer a great loss today. It cannot take another."

 **AN:**

 **National American suicide prevention hotline 1-800-273-8255**

 **For Canada Call (800) 273-8255**

 **For Uk Call Samaritans 111-123**

 **You are loved and someone out there could not take your loss.**


	11. The Velveteen Rabbit

The next day Dark was cleared to walk. As soon as he was left alone and with this basic right reestablished, Dark wandered back to his room. The Demon tried to ignore his daughters' cries, that had grown even louder in the passing days. He had wanted to see Maria, maybe the cries might settle, but they refused to allow him to see the. . . body. Something about how it would be to "traumatizing." Dark knew what traumatizing was, and it was not holding his daughter. No matter what state she may be in.

As these thoughts buzzed through his head, he finally made it to his door. Taking a moment, the demon steeled himself, and pushed the door open.

The doctor had been right; he had done quite a number on it. Everything looked as if it had been pulled through hell. His books were torn apart and scattered across the floor, his bed frame shattered, every soft surface ripped with stuffing drooping out miserably.

None of this was of interest to Dark though, what truly caught his eye was Bim Trimmer. The other ego sat in the section of his room dedicated to Maria's nursery, crying miserably. It took Dark a moment to realize he was scrubbing off Maria's flower moral off the wall.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Bim startled, and spun to look at Dark, "Dark! What are you doing up?" The younger ego scrambled up and moved as if to usher the demon out, "What are you doing alone? Who let you get out by yourself?" Bim's hands wrapped around Dark's shoulders and started to push him out. "Host said you weren't safe to be alone. Come on, we'll find someone to stay with you. Silver would be happy to I'm—''

"What were you doing?" Dark refused to budge.

Bim floundered for a moment, and Dark felt his wet hands tense around his shoulders, "I'm . . . I'm cleaning up."

"Why are you doing that?" Dark asked as he felt his aura buzz around him. He shook off Bim's hands and almost drifted to Maria's nursery.

The area had been destroyed. The wall looked as if it had lost a knife fight, Maria's basinet now looked like a mass of crumple metal, and splintered wood, her blankets were in tatters. He idly though that he'd never be able to stitch them back together. Far too many holes.

He noticed something in the rubble, a tiny stuffed, velveteen rabbit.

Dark felt himself bend to his knees before the mess and then with nothing else to do he began to gently move the debris from around this single intact toy. Once he'd finally freed the thing, he brought it up and looked down on the little thing. The caramel colored fabric was soft under his touch, and its little black button eyes stared back up at him.

Dark felt tears escape his eyes as he pressed the little rabbit close to his chest, "Why are you washing away her flowers and bees? She'll want them back, so it's pointless to get rid them away. You already put so much work into painting them."

He heard Bim take a shape intake of breath, but he was too busy running his fingers over the velveteen rabbit to look back.

"Dark. . . Maria's gone. She. . . She died."

Dark tucked rabbit under his nose to breath in the sent, the tiny thing had always been in Maria's grasp, "I know."

Suddenly he felt Bim's body press against his, and the show host's arms snake around him. Dark realized the other must be kneeling behind him. When had that happened?

He felt Bim's shaking breath on the back of his neck, "Dark. . . I so—I'm so sorry. We loved—We loved her so much. It's not fair, it just isn't fair."

"Why are you crying? I can fix this." Dark said because he knew the world really couldn't be this cruel.

"She's dead Dark."

Dark pushed the other off of him, tucked the small rabbit into his pocket, and stood, "So what? So am I."

Bim blinked up at the other, "What?"

Dark began to pace, thoughts forming rapidly, "Get out."

"Dark, what do you mean—''

Dark whirled around to face the younger ego, "I said get out. I'm sure you have other things you would much rather be doing."

"No, Dark what do you—''

He has had enough off this, crouching down he allowed for his face to morph into a cruel grin, "Maybe you would prefer to be in our dear Host's bed."

Bim's eyes grew huge, and with a pale face he stuttered out, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, did you really think we wouldn't notice?" Dark tilted his head a little, "Do you think we wouldn't notice how you crawl your way in there begging every night? We notice, we also notice how he makes you leave early in the morning."

"Shut up."

"Hmmm, have you ever thought maybe you're just a toy?" the demon was on a roll now, he wasn't about to stop, "The Host is rather fond of those, and what a fine toy you make for him. He can use you anyway he wants, and you're so pathetic you'll just crawl right back to him, ready to spread—''

Slap!

Bim looked up at the demon his breaths shallow; he no longer cried from grief but in anger.

This was the third time in two days Dark had been slapped. The demon stood back up, "Get out. Now."

This time Bim didn't argue.

Finally, alone Dark turned back to looking at the nursery. He was Dead, but he'd come back. So why shouldn't Maria?

Dark growled a bit, as he began to try and tidy up the mess. His situation had been different though, and the only reason all of them had made it back into this body was the house had guided them and given them the power to. Unfortunately, that is no longer an option, seeing as the house is now a part of him, and had abandoned most of its power to fit into the tiny vessel that was the DA. He needed more power.

And it couldn't just be any old power, it had to be a strong magic. That just wasn't just laying around their realm though, most of the entities Dark could think of were too weak for what the demon intended, or far too powerful to trifle with. Dark would have to kill whoever he decided on so he would have to pick someone he knew for certain he could take down. Dark would only have one chance.

He pulled the velveteen rabbit back out, and stroked it. Dark remembered a line from one of Evelyn's story books, where a little toy rabbit asked if being real hurt. A toy horse had responded and had told the little rabbit that sometimes it did.

Nearly a century later Dark has come to the conclusion that the horse had been wrong; being real always hurt.

Dark stayed that way for a few minutes, until a singular thought entered his mind, 'Marvin.'

The demon held the little rabbit closer, he had work to do


	12. Casinos and Drinks

After two days of nonstop planning, Dark found himself stood outside a back-alley casino. In truth, it could hardly be considered a casino. It was more of an abandoned factory that had been repurposed for gambling, and some pimp had applied neon lights to. At any other time, Dark wouldn't be caught dead at such a low-class establishment, but it was a known hang out of Marvin.

Much to the demon's disgust it seemed that the normally sweet natured magician had quite the gambling problem, but not only that, he was also a notorious cheat. That habit had left establishments like this to be his only outlets. All of the respectable ones would turn him away at the door.

Dark had already visited seven of these "casinos" and his patience was wearing thin. Their realm generally only allowed for extremes, so each of his stops had been. . . uniquely trying. Frankly, after the last one he was never going to look at chocolate fountains the same way again. That being the said, Marvin had better be in this one. With a sigh Dark entered.

The smell hit him first; sex, drugs, grease, and alcohol.

Those scents perfectly indicated the scene before him. Among the machines, packed pool and card tables, all manners of . . . activates were going on. Dark could spot at least three drug circles, five tables that had been claimed exclusively for body shots, and if he followed his ears. . . The sounds did not lie. There was a man fucking a woman in the booth directly to his left.

Turning his eyes away from that disgusting view, he began to move forward through the "establishment."

Dark could feel eyes beginning to burn into him. With each room he passed though the casino gradually became quieter. Dark was quite a well-known figure in their realm. In fact, he was probably one of the most feared as well, as such when he was noticed each individual fell silent, for fear of drawing his gaze. Quite annoying; he hated silence.

Thankfully though, with silence came a better ability to hear, which made finding Marvin nearly too easy.

On the floor above him, Dark heard the distinctively loud voice shared by the Septic's, "Ahhhhh, come on man! I 'aven't counted cards once tonight! You got to believe me. Would I lie to you, Henry?"

As Dark scaled the stairs he heard the sound of a fist meeting flesh, and when he reached the head of the stairs he spotted the man he had come to collect laying prone across the floor, with a man twice his size standing over him.

"You would, Marv. You've lied in just about every casino in a two-hundred-mile radius." The man rolled up his sleeves, "Which is why I'm going to teach you a lesson."

It seemed a good a time as any to intervene, so Dark delicately cleared his throat, "Excuse me, but I am afraid I need to cut in."

The huge man, apparently named Henry, spun to snap at whoever dared to interrupt him, only to find himself face to face with the Demon. With terrified eyes the man blinked, "Holy shit."

"Dark? What the hell are you doing here?" Marvin slurred from his spot on the floor. One look at him and Dark could tell he was beyond drunk. Good, that would make this easier.

Dark smiled stiffly at Henry, "Apologies, I am here to collect my. . . associate."

The man stumbled back, trying to put distance between himself and the demon, "Take him. Do whatever you want with him, just don't hurt anyone else."

Dark, crossed the room to lean down, and hoist the smashed magician up off the ground, ignoring his groans of protest, "Very generous of you. Have a good day."

With that he began to guide the drunk Marvin back out of the room and down the stairs, making sure to maneuver the other ego around the other patrons.

"What are you doing here Dark, I thought you weren't going out anymore? No ones seen you anywhere for like ten months." Marvin sagged against the demon, practically allowing himself to be carried. Dark realized he must be to intoxicated to really think about whom he was using to support himself.

With this in mind, Dark wrapped his arm around the other ego's shoulders drawing him closer. Trust me, "I've been operating from home for seven months, not ten, and as I said before. I came to collect you."

Marvin blinked owlishly at him, "But why?"

Time to sweet talk him, "I need your help. You are the leading expert in your field. I have something I simply couldn't figure out without your help."

The magician's chest swelled with pride, "Well, why didn't you say so? Marvin the Magnificent would be happy to help."

Dark couldn't help but admire how easy it was to trick the drunk as he lead Marvin out of the Casino. He smiled at the smaller man, "I'm so glad that you are willing to help me. I would simply be lost without you."

Marvin's face, already red with the amount of alcohol he had consumed, looked quite comical as he blushed and sputtered out, "You don't have to thank me. I couldn't leave you hanging like this when you so obviously need a professional's help. It just wouldn't be right. But . . . Uh, just what do you want me to help you with? I can't do much without knowing what I'm working with."

Dark grinned down at Marvin, he really was too easy to convince, "Oh it is far too complicated to explain, I'll have to show you."

Marvin squinted at him for a moment before giving a grunt of agreement.

Dark swirled his powers around them, "Perfect." And they were gone.

* * *

Dark dropped them in the abandoned bunker, that over the course of the last few days he had spent an expansive amount of time readying for this moment.

Runes of all kinds, from all cultures had been carved into the walls, as well as painted on the floors and ceilings. Each of them with the sole purpose of containing power, or heightening it. Additionally, a single metal operating table sat in the middle of the room, with a crib to the left, and a tool table to to the right of it.

Marvin blinked, and began to stumble around sluggishly, tripping over his own feet.

"I don't get it." Marvin was rubbing his fingers over the walls, "I don't understand, why do you need the same type of symbol over and over. . .? I don't get it, you're going to have to tell me."

Dark hummed, readying a syringe while Marvin was distracted, "You're very powerful, aren't you? Absolutely bursting at the seams with it. You just don't have any real control of it, do you?"

Bristling, Marvin turned to look at him, "Now hold on-''

"Many years ago, I was much, much more powerful than you. But I had to abandon most of it for the chance to live." Now he just had to wait for Marvin to be at his most vulnerable. Dark couldn't afford a fight with something so valuable in the room, "What I need is your power. I need more power, if I have that I can control it without issue."

Marvin walked swaying towards Dark, "Now hold on one second, you can't use my magic though it just isn't—Holy shit." Marvin had finally noticed what was inside the crib.

His now scared eyes slid back up to Dark's, "Why the hell do you have a dead baby?"

Dark ignored the question taking a step closer to Marvin, "That's where your wrong. I can. I just have to force it out of you."

Marvin took in a sharp breath, "You can't do that Dark. It's impossible, my magic is my soul." The magician started to try and back away hastily, on shaky legs, only for him to trip and fall.

"Not at all impossible. I just have to hurt you badly enough for long enough that I fracture it."

Dark could hear Marvin's panicked breaths, and curses, as he desperately tried to stand again. It had been a true stroke of fortune that Marvin had been drinking so heavily.

The demon approached the other slowly till he stood over Marvin's panicked form, "You will be dying for a good cause Marvin, don't worry." He knelt down observing his neck for the best place to push in the needle. Dark had to have him asleep at the beginning, if he tried to set a fighting Marvin up it would be too difficult.

When Marvin finally looked up at Dark, he had tears streaming from his wide blue eyes, "Please—''

Dark plunged the needle in.


	13. Septic Family Conference

Marvin had been missing for four days now, and Jackieboy Man was starting to get worried. He knew the magician had gone out to the casinos a few days ago. Now, Marvin had disappeared for a day or two before, but never four, and he had always, always called home at some point to tell the other Septics that he wasn't dead.

No such call had been received.

"Are you sure that he didn't even text you or something, Schneep?" Jackie was currently sat in the living room, with all the other Septics, who each wore a similarly stressed expression.

Dr. Schneeplestein rolled his eyes, a puff of breath leaving his mouth, "Ya, I totally missed it the last thousand times I checked my phone. Of course, I'm sure you gehirnverweigerer! What do you think I've been doing the last three days? Sitting around, playing on die phone? Maybe some candy crush?"

"Bro, calm down. He was just making sure." Chase said, sitting on the floor beside Robbie. Jackie noted that the father looked as if he hadn't slept at all over the last few days, or even showered by the looks of it. Robbie slumped against him making a rather pathetic sound, which triggered Chase to immediately wrap the Zombie in a one-arm hug.

"I think you're all making too big of a fucking deal out of this."

Jackie's eyes, as well as everyone else's, snapped to Anti. The glitch had sat himself away from the rest of the group, and instead perched himself on the windows ledge, "He's probably just off screwing a prostitute or something. He knows enough of them."

Jackie felt something like bile rise in his throat, "Jesus Anti. He doesn't do that. He just. . . he just has a gambling problem. He doesn't do prostitution."

Anti scoffed, "Just a gambling problem? The man's practically a pathological liar, with a fucking heavy dose of kleptomania, and he's an alcoholic. Who knows the shit he does."

Jameson waved his hands frantically from his spot on the couch and once he'd caught everyone's attention, began to scrambled to write out a sentence on his white board. In a few moments, he finished and turned the board to everyone, 'He hasn't been home in four days, Anti. No matter what that's weird.'

Jackie nodded, "James is right. Marvin hasn't called, isn't answering our calls, and no one has seen him. Something's got to have happened."

". . . Did you only talk to the 'respectable' casinos?" Chases interjected hesitantly, "You know he hangs around in some of the, uh, scuzzier places. Those dudes might know something."

Robbie shifted his face out of Chase's arm, "He promised he wouldn't go to the bad places anymore."

Anti grinned, glitching slightly, and in a sing song voice said, "Pathological liar. What can I tell you?"

". . . Promised. You can't break a promise." The zombie scowled at the glitch now, not liking what he was implying at all.

"Do you know what a pathological liar is, Robbie? It means he fucking lies. All the time. I bet he—''

"Anti. Enough." Jackie barked out. They weren't getting anywhere, the only thing that was happening was getting them all even more stressed. Jackie let out a sigh standing up, "As much as I hate to say this. . . Chase and Anti are probably right. We need to check out those too."

A distressed sound came from Robbie, but otherwise the room was mostly in agreement.

"I'll start calling das casinos." Schneep stood stretching, "But that bananenbieger from last time better not pick up. He was a feisty one, very rude." With that the doctor began to stalk off to his office.

Anti then rose to his feet as well, "I don't think this shit means anything, but I'll start poking around. See if anything shows up." And with that he jumped out of the window.

Chase's face scrunched up slightly, "Bro. Why can't he ever just use a door? It's not that hard."

Jackie had to agree, and he had even had a talk with Anti about it. A talk that had ended in Anti flipping him off then trying to stab him, "Just the way he is. Anyways, why don't you go and check out some of his old haunts to? He might just have fallen asleep under table or something and not gotten up."

Jameson held up his board again with the new massage of, 'for four days?'

"Marvin is literally a magic man. Who knows what he's capable of."

Chase looked at Jackie for a few moments before nodding, "Sure thing dude." With that he began the careful exercise of removing himself from Robbie's grip. It wasn't necessarily a physically taxing endeavor, but emotionally was an entirely different case.

The zombie let out a few weak sounds, giving Chase the most pitiful look imaginable, as he clung the man. Jackie decided it was only right to help the guy out, they all knew how will breaking Robbie's eyes could be.

Jackie knelt down to eye level of the zombie, giving him a wide grin, "Hey Robbster, you know what both James and you could do to help out?"

That had certainty caught Jameson's attention. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the mute ego scoot closer. Okay, he had gotten James, now he just needed to land Robbie. Unfortunately though, if he went by the glare the zombie was directing at him that might be harder.

Robbie narrowed his eyes at the hero, ". . . Don't need to look around bad places. Marvin promised."

Jackie felt his soul die a little at that. Marvin better not be at one of those places, it would crush the kid. "Yeah. I know, Robbie. But I'm not asking you to go to any of the bad places."

Robbie took a moment to process this, before his glare soften slightly. Which was a huge relief to Jackie; he didn't think he could take sweet little Robbie looking at him like that for much longer.

Jackie pushed forward, "What I'm asking is for James and you to check around Marv's room. He might have slipped in and grabbed some cloths or something before heading back out. Just see if anything looks out of place or if anything is missing, alright?"

After a moment Robbie nodded, finally released Chase, and then stood himself. The Zombie began to walk at a slow pace towards Marvin's room, snagging James's hand along the way, taking him with him.

Chase thanked him before heading out as well, leaving Jackie completely alone.

With a puff of breath Jackie got back up, and headed out. He'd be looking through the back alleys, lord knows they had found Marvin there often enough.

* * *

A few hours into the search and nothing. Jackie had found absolutely nothing. Sure, there had been some false calls, but nothing that had lead up to anything. The only even slightly interesting thing that had happened was when he spotted that kid in full bodied cat costume. Still not useful though. Funny. Slightly ironic, but not useful.

Suddenly he was broken from his thoughts when his phone began to ring. Pulling it out he checked the caller ID. Schneep.

Hurriedly he answered it, "You got something, man?"

Schneep's voice sounded frantic as if broke through the call, "Do I have something? Oh, I have more than something. Der bananenbieger answered, and guess what he told me? Marvin was taken from his casino by the one and only Darkipler!"

Jackie felt his blood run cold, "What?"

"Ya! That's what he said. Dark apparently came by three days ago and rescued Marvin from a beating, and then just left with him!"

This wasn't good. Why would Dark need Marvin anyways? He'd never shown interest in the magician before. "Thanks, Schneep. Call me if you get anything else." With that he hung up on the doctor, and against his best judgment swiped though his contacts till he got to a particular number. After a moment of hesitation, he clicked the call button, and pressed the phone to his ear.

In a few moments Anti's voice picked up, "Yo?"

"It was Dark. He took Marv from one of the casinos three days ago. I need you to start following Dark's trail, I know you can find him."

There was silence on the other line for a second before, with an insane laugh, Anti answered, "Now this I can fucking get behind."


	14. Ten Fingers Ten Toes

It had been three days since Dark had taken Marvin from the casino and it wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't workin SHE'S CRYING g. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It SHE'S CRYING wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't SHE'S CRYING working. It wasn't working. SHE'S CRYING It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. SHE'S CRYING. SHE'S CRYING It wasn't working. It wasn't SHE'S CRYING working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't wo SHE'S CRYING raking. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. SHE'S CRYING It wasn't working. SHE'S CRYING.

It wasn't working.

Dark was sat in the corner of the bunker, with the only sound to break him from the mantra in his mind being Marvin's constant shivers, wines, and pathetic moans. He could feel his mind slowly slipping. He could feel it. It was slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Slipping.

He had torn the Magician to shreds. Dissected him. Beaten him. Drugged him. Cut him. Shocked him. Striped him. Humiliated him. Sliced him. Broken him. Gutted him. Reduced him. Punished him. Dehumanized him. Crushed him. Shattered him. Strangled him. Warped him. Branded him. Mutilated him. Sawed him. Burned him. Starved him. Dark had tortured the Septic ego till he was nothing but a broken, sobbing, shell of himself, and still it wasn't working.

He had gained access to the magician's magic in the first day.

He had, the torture had, broken the magician's magic, his soul, in too little shards. Into tiny, tiny shards. And Dark had been using them as fuel to search for Maria's soul in the void. It should be working. He knew his way around the void. A part of him had been of the void once. He just needed the power boost to access it again, and he had that power boost. He had it. He also had managed to enter the void, but h ' a.

It wasn't working. It wasn't working.

Dark didn't understand. It should be working. He had done everything right. He had done everything right. The only problem was he couldn't find Maria.

The demon had searched everywhere. He had looked through every last nock and cranny, he had scoured every inch of the void, and he hadn't even found a trace of her.

Nothing. He had found nothing.

So now the Great Demon Darkiplier, was sat, huddled in a corner, listening to the pained whimpers of a broken man. Was that Marvin? He wasn't sure. It might be him making those sounds. It might be both of them. No matter who it was though he wanted it to stop. He wanted it to stop. He wanted it to stop now.

"Shut up." The whimpering continued.

"I said shut. up." He didn't shut up.

Dark was on his feet stalking across to the surgical table to snarl down at Marvin's bloody, brussied, beaten, broken, naked form, "I said shut up."

Instead of shutting up the Magician instead, let out panicked warbles, straining to move away from Dark, causing blood to slosh off the table, creating a horrible splashing sound.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what he wanted at all. He just wanted quiet. He just wanted it to make everything to go silent. He wanted all the whimpering, all the dripping, all the crying just to stop. It needed to stop. It needed to stop.

Dark felt his hands close over Marvin's wet, unmasked face and begin to suffocate him, "I said shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up—''

"Holy fucking shit."

Dark whirled, hardly noticing the gasps of breath Marvin took in as he did so, and spotted a figure in the shadows. After a moment, the figure slunk out to reveal Antisepticeye.

The glitch stared at Dark with something close to horror. Dark wasn't sure. It could have just as easily been disgust.

Anti's eyes flicked over the room, taking in every last inch. In the back of his mind Dark was thankful Anti would only be able to spot the crib, and not Maria herself from where he was standing. The glitch approached slowly, and Dark caught a gilt of silver flash, as Anti shifted his knife in his hand, "Holy shit Dark. You've gone completely fucking insane."

The glitch spoke the words with wide eyes and intake of breath, "You. . . you've actually snapped. Out of all the people to . . . Snap like this I never expected your bitch ass to be the one to do it. Look at you. . . You look. . . Holy shit."

He couldn't fight Anti. Not with Maria in the room. But how was he not going to fight Anti? He didn't know. He didn't know.

Dark moved his body with Anti's careful to keep between him and the crib, "How did you find me?"

After a moment the glitch snorted, grinning sharply, "Oh Darky, a magician never reveals his secrets. Speaking of magicians. . . Why the fuck did you steal mine?" On the last words Anti took a few sharp, aggressive steps forward.

Stepping back quickly, Dark growled out, "I need him."

"You 'need him?'" Anti nearly lurched forward, "You need my brother for what?! As your torture fantasy bitch? Were you trying to fuck with me? If that was what you were going for, what kind of fucking idiot are you?! You know I can track your ass down. You know I can."

Against his better judgment, Dark snarled and stepped towards Anti, "I know what you can do Anti, and I know what you can't. Which at the moment seems to be getting to the point. There is a reason you haven't attacked me yet."

Anti would point his knife at Dark, but otherwise become completely still, "I need to get Marvin to a hospital. If I fight you now God knows how fucking long that would take. Marvin might die before we finish. Hand him over now, and I won't kill you tonight. I'll give you some time to sleep, and eat. You don't look like you've been doing much of that for the last few days." A cruel smirk would cross his lips, "What were you so into torturing Marvin that you forgot to?"

"I need him."

A snarl flew past Anti's lips his face morphing into something animalistic, "I don't fucking have time for this." And suddenly the glitch launched himself at Dark, his blade raised high.

Dark's Aura flew up around him like a shield, throwing Anti across the room, but the Glitch was back up in a second and was flinging himself at the demon.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! This wasn't right, this wasn't right. As Dark was forced to stubble back, as the blows intensified. He couldn't fight back. He couldn't. If he did the room would be destroyed, and Maria was in the room. m.

Dark let out a yelp off pain as Anti finaly made it through his aura and with a cackle sliced his knife across Dark's chest, "You aren't much fun tonight, Dark. Aww, What? Did you tire yourself out torturing my brother you strapped to a fucking table?!"

The demon allowed one of Anti's attacks to throw him back, hoping to lure Anti further away from the crib, but as he made impact on the ground he felt something snap. Shit, he should have known that was a bad idea. He should have known. This body was far, far too old to roughhouse with, and now he had a broken hip.

Despite that though for the first few seconds he had been happy that he had allowed Anti to do it. He had almost thought it had worked, that Anti would leave Maria's area. But it didn't. It didn't work. Dark realized this once he saw the smirk on Anti's face, that the glitch had heard the bone break, and he knew Dark wasn't going to be able to go anywhere. Worst of all Dark realized that being thrown across the room had only allowed for Anti to have a clear view of the contents of the crib.

Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look.

He looked.

Anti's face morphed in surprise, his eye brows quirking, ". . . So not only do you have torture kink or some shit, but you also get off on dead babies. . .? Dark, you are really fucking sick."

The demon cursed under his breath. He couldn't stand, he couldn't fight, he couldn't do anything, "Leave her alone, Anti. She's not important to you."

Anti's eye brows went back into his hairline at the sound of desperation in Dark's voice. After a moment, he reached into the crib and picked Maria up, cradling her to his chest, "Nah, she doesn't mean shit to me. But you? Judging by the look you're giving me this dead bitch means a fuck ton to you."

Dark could feel his heart pounding in his chest, "Let her go Anti! Just take Marvin and get out!" He began to drag himself towards the Septic only to collapse, his head spinning. He hadn't drunk anything since he'd started his work on Marvin three days ago, he realized.

Anti grinned, "Shit Dark. You are pathetic, aren't you?" He then look down at the baby in his arms and forced a mock serious expression, bringing a finger to his lips, "But we mustn't be too loud. The baby is sleeping after all."

"Just put her down. You can have anything. Just put Maria down, just please put her down. Please you. . . You can do anything. Just lay her down."

"Oh, you want me to put Maria down?" Anti cackled rocking Maria in his arms, "I can put her down." In a sudden flash of movement Anti had hurled the tiny baby across the room, and her body hit the wall with a sickening crack.

No.

An agonized sound left Dark's throat, "Maria? Maria?" He could only think of the tiny body crumpled on the ground. He couldn't think about Anti. Or Marvin. Or Ipliers. Or Septics. All he could think about was the tiny broken body laying twenty feet away from him.

He had to get to her.

"Maria?" She was dragging himself. The room was spinning, but Maria needed him, she needed her. "Maria, don't worry Mama's on her way! Mama's coming, Mama's coming I promise."

She could feel her fingers, bleeding from the effort to drag their body to Maria, but it didn't matter she just had to get to Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria.

Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria.

Maria. Maria.

Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria.

Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria

Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria. Maria.

Maria.

She had finally made it to Maria's little body, and she wanted to die. She wanted to die.

Maria's little body was broken and twisted sagging limply on the ground. She collapsed beside her little girl, pulling her baby into her arms.

"Baby doll. . . Wake up. Mama's here. She's here. I'm here. I'm going to fix you. Remember? I promised. I promised I would always protect you. No matter what. . . Maria, wake up. I . . . wake up. Please. I love you. I love you. I love you. Just please wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up. I was fixing you."

No movement. No breath. No life. Just a broken baby and a broken mother.

In that moment, she realized that she couldn't fix Maria now. Even . . . Even if she found her little soul in the void. . . She couldn't fix her. She would stay broken with no way of healing. Just like her.

There was no way to save her baby.

Pulling the small body close to her, she began to sob. She sobbed for the baby. She sobbed for her family. She sobbed from the pain. She sobbed for herself. She sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed.

Why wouldn't the crying ever stop?

She felt a presence kneel down behind her, ". . . You. . . I'm so . . . What the fuck Dark? What the fuck is this? Or should I call you Mama? Fuck if I know. I'm confused as shit."

Oh. That's right. Anti was here wasn't he?

"Hey. Dick wad. Pay attention to me when I'm talking to you." She felt something sharp press against her back. Oh. Anti was threating her, wasn't he? He was going to cut her if she didn't pay attention? In that moment, she made a choice.

She quickly twisted to face the glitch and lurched her entire body into his blade, feeling the cold metal slide into her stomach. That hurt more than she had thought it would. That's okay. She deserved to hurt. She had let her baby down, she had let her baby die.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! What the fuck Dark?! Fuck! Did. . . Did you just use me to commit fucking suicide?!"

He was far too loud for her tastes. Far, far too loud. Trying to ignore his cursing, she rolled back over, pulling little Maria back into her arms. Such a beautiful baby. . . She decided to count her fingers and toes one last time.

One finger, two finger, three finger, four finger, five finger.

Five perfect fingers.

One toe, two toe, three toe, four toe, five toe, six toe, seven toe, eight toe, nine toe, ten toe.

Ten perfect toes.

Dark decided it might finally be time to sleep.


	15. Not my Fault

After making the call Jackie decided that it was time for him to pay a visit to the Iplier's, and now he was standing on their doorstep wondering just how to start up this conversation. Really? How? Especially when the Iplier family contained the type of people that it did? Jackie might be a hero, but he did not want to end up surrounded by people like them if this went wrong.

After a few moments of staring at the door he pulled out his phone and dialed in a number, before putting it to his ear and waiting for his one ally on the other side of the door to answer the phone. After the third ring the call was answered, "Hey, sorry Jackie, but I can't talk right now-"

"I'm at your door Silver. I need to talk with you and the rest of the Adams family."

It was silent on the other end for a moment before an exhale of breath came from the other side, ". . . Damn Jackie. You really know how to back me into a corner. I'll come let you in, in a sec."

True to his world Silver was down only moments later, cracking the door open hesitantly, "Listen man, I would love to hang out or do League stuff with you but my family is dealing with some-''

But Jackie decided he would make it easier for everyone and just push his way in, ignoring the indignant squawk that came from his friend, "Convent because my family is going through some stuff too. Do you know where Dark is?"

Silver froze in his place, ". . . Why are you asking?"

"Because he's the last person we know was seen with Marvin." Jackie had a very limited understanding of the Iplier's buildings layout, but he knew where the kitchen was and chocolate ice cream was calling his name, "You know? My younger brother Marvin? Wears a cat mask, likes cheap whiskey, and cheats at cards? He went missing a few days ago."

"Funny." A deep southern voice drawled from a doorway, "Dark just so happened to go missing round abouts the same time." Ed Edgar steeped out his eyes intense, "You wouldn't be suggesting Marvin had anything to do with that?"

Jackie let out a hiss of breath, stepping back a bit, Ed was one of the Ipliers he was least looking forward to seeing, "Hi Ed. Looking redneck as always, but no. I wasn't. I was suggesting Dark had something to do with Marvin's disappearance."

Ed took a step forward to make up for the one Jackie took back, "You see any other day I would agree that Dark is a more likely suspect, but you see, I don't today. Dark ain't in the state to be coming up with any plans."

Jackie felt his brows furrow, "Not in the state? What do you-'' Suddenly Silver was sliding himself in-between Jackie and Ed.

"Hold on Guys. . . Let's just cool down for a second. Think you can do that?" Silver put a hand on both men's' chest and pushed them apart, "Maybe it's just a coincidence."

Jackie snorted, not quite understand why Silver was diverting them, "Coincidence? Come on, Silv, you know coincidences never happen with people like us."

Silver was about to respond when the sound of footsteps came from another hall. The other hero winced, "Can-. . . Can we move this to another room please. . .?"

But it was too late and the other Iplier was already there, and it looked like it was the show host one. But instead of his normal pristine look he looked like he had just rolled out of bed sick, and then been beaten with a stick, "Guys. . .? Why are you. . .Oh. Hi Jackie. What are you doing here?"

Ed glanced over at the show host, concern written on his features, "Jackie has just come asking after Dark. Said his brother's gone missing too."

Bim. That's right, his name was Bim Trimmer. Jackie nodded, "Yeah, and Dark was the last person seen with-!"

Jackie suddenly had a face full of one Mr. Trimmer, who had his fist curled up in the hero's shirt as he looked up at the man with wild, desperate eyes, "Dark?! You've seen Dark?!"

A startled sound left Jackie as he was jerked down, but after a moment he began to gently detach Bim from himself, "No, I haven't seen him. But someone else did a few days ago. He saw him with my brother. My drunk brother."

Bim let out a little confused sound, "Why would Dark be with your drunk brother?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm here."

Silver cleared his throat again, "I really don't think-''

"Why are you so determined to stop this conversation Silver? Ain't you even a little suspicious?" Ed's eyes scanned over the hero, as if he was trying to figure out just what he was thinking.

Silver winced, drawing back slightly, "I'm just trying to keep everyone thinking rationally."

"It sounds like your coverin' for someone." Ed persisted leaning into Silver's space, "Now why would you be doing that?"

Silver squirmed where he stood, irritation lacing his voice, "Why are you interrogating me? Host is the one that knows everything!"

Bim's voice was coarse, "You know Host went silent on us."

"Then maybe we shouldn't be asking so many questions." Jackie noticed how Silver was edging his way towards a door, and placed himself in the way.

"Silv? What are you doing?"

Silver let out a groan, rubbing a hand over his face, "I honestly have no fucking clue what Dark is doing with Marvin."

Bim stepped closer, his eyes wide, "But you do know something about Dark. . .?"

"You where siting with the body when Dark disappeared. . ." Ed's voice was quiet, "You gave her to him didn't you?"

Silver shuffled, "He said he had a plan to save her. What was I supposed to do. . .?

Ed took his hat off and ran a had though his hair, "Well, Christ, for one thing you should ask him what the damn plan is!"

"He wouldn't tell me! And what is wrong with giving Dark his own child?!" Jackie was growing more and more confused by the second, and frankly didn't know what to do at this point. Also, it seemed like the Iplier's had forgotten his presence.

"It's wrong when you know how Dark is, and know that he has been on the verge of suicide for the past few days! When you know- Silver, you. . . You are so, so stupid sometimes. I just want to smack you." Bim's sleep deprived eyes were filled with filled with fire until suddenly it all drained, like a switch had been flipped, and terror filled his eyes instead, "Oh God. Oh God . . . Dark's out there alone with Mari- with the body. . . Anything could be happening to him."

Jackie cleared his throat delicately, and every Iplier's head in the room snapped to look at him.

As if he were in class, Jackie rose his hand, "Um, excuse me but Dark had a kid? A dead kid? What. . .? Someone gave the demon a child? Like a . . . actual child? Who thought that was a good idea."

Ed scowled slightly, straightening his hat, "Dark is a mighty fine parent."

"So, you. You were the one that gave edgy grumpy cat a kid and thought it would turn out well."

Bim gave Jackie a look that could curdle milk, "It wasn't his fault. It wasn't. We- We just have really. . . really bad luck."

Jackie wasn't quite certain if that was truly the only aspect to this situation, but he let that one go, "Anyways. . . Why would Dark be with my brother? I mean . . . sure he does magic and stuff, but he's never brought anything back to life? And believe me I've tried to get him to when my goldfish died."

Ed's brow went up, "You tried to make your brother bring your gold fish to life?"

Jackie shifted slightly, "That's not the point. Marvin can't do that so why-''

Jackie's phone cut him off, ringing loudly through the now silent room. Jackie pulled it out slowly and found that it was Anti's number, with a hint of dread he answered the phone and put it up to his ear, "Hey bro."

"Heeeeey Jackie! Uhhhhhh. . .Before you get pissed I want to point out that I found Marvin. So, at the end of the day I did a good thing, and should not be locked out of the house for bad behavior or-"

"You found Marvin?! Is he alright?!"

"Uh, going with a strong no on that one. More like three and a half quarters dead. But I got him to the hospital and that is not the main point here-"

"How is that not the main point-?!"

"Because this time it isn't. The point is, that I didn't try to kill him. It just kind of happened? Really it was more him than me. I mean yes. I did hold the knife, but that was all I did! And I know it looks suspicious because I've been taking about carving edge bitch up for like fucking ever, but really, I did not contribute in this killing like at all."

Jackie felt his blood go cold, "What do you mean?"

Anti took a deep breath on the other side of the phone, "Darkiplier is dead."


End file.
